
Book 



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HOWARD STREET M. E. CHURCH. 






"The Retrospect," 

A GLANCE 

AT 

THIRTY YEARS OF THE HISTORY 

OF 

HOWARD STREET 

Methedist Episcopal Ghurek 

OF SAN FRANCISCO. 



Published by the Official Board. 



A. BUSWELL & CO., PRINTERS AND BINDERS. 

San Francisco, 

1883. 






Viitio 

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^V ^V^TS/PCPlS-p^^ 



PRESIDENT- BOARD OF TRUSTEES 



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, 



ORIGINAL MEMBERS. 



The following names appear as original 
or organizing members of the Church : 



M. E. Willing. 
Seneca Jones. 
Elizabeth Jones. 
Wm. H. Codington. 
Clayton Tweed. 
John Johnson. 
Eliza J. Johnson. 
Elizabeth Winters. 
John Winters. 
John Sims. 
Elizabeth Christy. 
T. H. 



Horace Hoag. 
James Christy. 
Charles Merriman. 
John Payne. 
Wm. Hatzel. 
Jas. W. Whiting. 
Anne Whiting. 
Ellen Freeborn. 
Judah Alden. 
Samuel Perkins. 
T. G. Merrill. 
Hickey. 



OFFICERS. 



The following is a chronological list of 
official members from the organization to 
the present time : 



TRUSTEES. 



R. P. Spire. 
Henry Read. 
D. L. Ross. 
J. B. Bond. 
Wm. Phillips. 
Horace Hoag. 
J. E. Whitcher. 
Seneca. Jones. 
Franklin Kinsman. 
John C. Ayres. 
John Paine. 
Edward L. Smith. 
Charles Merriman. 
Wm. H. Codington, 
Edward R. Samis. 
L. S. Ely. 
Robert Stitt. 
Fred. A. Beardsley. 
D. 0. 



Edward McLean. 
Chas. Goodall. 
Henry Thomas. 
J. W. Whiting. 
D. S. Howard. 
Samuel Hancock. 
James Harlow. 
Wm. H. Gawley. 
Robt. McElroy. 
R. G. Byxbee. 
W. H. Howland. 
John Curry. 
S. S. Sprague. 
H. H. Noble. 
Sam'l Mosgrove. 
J. F. Byxbee. 
John M. Buffington. 
Andrew Nelson. 
Shattuck. 



OFFICERS. 



STEWARDS. 



M. E. Willing. 
Seneca Jones. 
James Christie. 
Horace Hoag. 
W. H. Codington. 
John Paine. 
Chas. Merriman. 
Simeon Jenkins. 
John C. Ayres. 

E. L. Smith. 

F. A. Beardsley. 
D. B . Finch. 
Edward McLean. 
M. C. Dodge. 
Felix Sanchez. 
Henry Thomas. 
Chas. Goodall. 

S S Sprague 
H G. Blasdell. 
D. S. Howard. 
J. F. Byxbee. 
Ames Arnold. 
John A. Carter. 
J. M. Buffington. 
Wm. Bartling. 
Joseph Knowland. 
H. H. Noble. 
W. F. Kellett. 

E. L. 



C. C. Lombard. 
Sam'l Mosgrove. 
J. J. Applegate. 
Chas. Lenoir. 
Andrew Nelson. 
Daniel Grant. 
Thomas Penlington. 
J. R. Merrill. 
Wm. Perkins. 
J. B. Firth. 
J. W. Duncan. 
G. S. Keys. 
Wm. Harover. 
Geo. B Adair. 
F. A. Nickerson. 
Chas A. Sankey. 
Geo. Penlington. 
W. H. Porter. 
T. O. Lewis. 
J. W. H. Campbell. 
Andrew Wilson. 
Robert Gemmell. 
Chas. Jones. 
J. K. Jones. 
Chas. B. Perkins. 
Frederick Peterson. 
J. C. Smith. 
J. G. Whittington. 
Barber. 



OFFICERS. 



CLASS LEADERS. 



Chas. Merriman. 
Thos. Welch. 
Robert Stitt. 
Robt. McElroy. 
Henry Thomas. 
A. F. Hitchcock. 
John Arnold. 
James F. Smith. 

D. S. Howard. 
Sam'l McHenry. 
W. H. Codington. 
H. Perkins. 

J. W. Whiting. 
Francis Mitchell. 

E. L. Smith. 
J. W. Bluett. 

Chas. 



Daniel Grant. 
Edwin Cutting. 
J. J. Applegate. 
Mrs. E. Cutting. 
Mrs E Firth. 
Seneca Jones. 
J. M. Buffington 
C. J. Moyes. 
J. A. Bergner. 
P. C. Miller. 
Ezra Smith. 
Mrs. T. O. Lewis. 
E. V.Hull. 
Alex. Head. 
Henry Large. 
K. W. Gress. 
Jones. 



PRESENT MEMBERS. 



The following: is the list of members at 



the present time : 

Appelgate, J. J. 
Appelgate, Annie S. 
Aclieson, Betsey 
Anglein, Rebecca 
Adair, Geo. B. 
Adair, Mattie E. 
Armstrong, Matilda 
Allen, Charlotte 
Anderson, Aurora 
Allison, H. H. 
Akeson, Annie 
Allen, Maggie 
Allen, Mary W. 
Atthouse, Sarah J. 
Ambrose, William 
Ayers, Lottie 
Bixby, John F. 
Bixby, Maggie 
Bixby, Edward M. 
Biggs, Mehetable 
Bartlett, Eliza 
Bartlett, Eliza 
Bartlett, Bertie 
Balcom, Lydia A. 
Bordwell, Helen 
Bergland, Hans 
Bergland, Annie C. 
Blanehard, Candace 
Bretteville, Harrison 
Burleigh, Robertson 



Burleigh, Margaret J. 
Burleigh, Edward 
Bergner, Annie 
Black, Sara A. 
Black, Hettie 
Brown, Mrs. Bessie 
Brown, Emma 
Brown, Bessie 
Brown, Harriet 
Boyle, Nettie M. 
Bell, Mary 
Batchelder, T. N. 
Batchelder, Mrs. T. N. 
Batchelder, Clara Bell 
Bowman, Mary E. 
Bowman, Emma 
Beach, Emma 
Barker, Grace 
Brundage, Mrs. 
Bower, Adah 
Bunyan, Edward T. 
Buckman, Frank W. 
Buckman, Nettie C. 
Benzon, Fisher Vcn 
Boucher, Fannie 
Berry, Mary F. 
Bell, Lucy Jane 
Cady, Sophia 
Campbell, J. W. H. 
Campbell, Emily 



10 



PRESENT MEMBERS. 



Curry, John 
Curry, Margaret 
Cady, Mary C. 
Caine, Thos. W. 
Caine, John 
Cordey, John 
Cordey, Mrs. J. 
Cummings, W. F. 
Cannon, Mrs. J. S. 
Cook, F. C. 
Cook, Mrs. M. N. 
Cox, H. (D. D.) 
Cox, Philip K. 
Cox, Sarah 
Cornell, Eliza 
Cornell, Miss E. M. 
Conley, Agnes 
Cowan, Stephen 
Chatfield, Sarah 
Crall, H. J. 
Crane, Frederick 
Cease, Lodema 
Callow, Chas. W. 
Caley, Robert 
Cooke, James B. 
Cloud, Andrew J. 
Cloud, Mrs. A. C. 
Cluff, Idarene 
Darling, Richard 
Dawson, George 
Davis, Thos. B. 
Donaldson, W. G. 
Davy, Maria li S. 
Dawson, J. W. 
Draper, Emerson H. 
Davis, Wm. 
Draper, John H. 
Devvitt, Sarah A. 
Derosier, Charles 
Dowd, Mrs. A. A. 
Dawe, Annie N. 
Dunnijjan, W. G. 



Damrell, Sarah 
Donellon, B. C. 
Donellon, A. 
Davey, Mrs. Emma 
Emory, Rebecca 
Elford, Henrietta 
Firth, J. B. 
Firth, Eliza 
Filebrown, Mrs. A. B. 
Foster, Emily 
Filben, Thos. (Rev.) 
Ferguson, Thos. 
Ferguson, Alice 
Foss, H. M. B. 
Fredericks, Emma 
Friend, Elizabeth 
Fay, Nellie 
Goodall, Charles 
Goodal], Serena 
Gardner, Mrs. I. G. 
Goodall, Rosa 
Gordon, Annie 
Good, Mrs. I. B. 
Girvin, Hannah 
Gress, K. Wellington 
Graves, Sarah H. 
Gliddon, Georgie 
Grover, Thomas 
Grey, James M. 
Guthrie, H. William 
Gardiner, Thos 
Hancock, Samuel 
Hancock, Mrs. E. 
Hancock, Robert 
Howland, Mrs. E. 
Howland, Lucinda 
Hessel, Mrs. G. 
Hess, A. J. 
Hanson, Elizabeth A. 
Hare, Amelia 
Hare, Emma 
Hall, Sarah N". 



PRESENT MEMBERS. 



11 



Heath, Eugenia 
Hasty, Minnie 
Harris, Wm. J. 
Harris, Emma Birdella 
Harris, Clyde 
Harris, Matthew 
Harris, Jeannette 
Hawver, William 
Head, Elizabeth 
Head, Louise E. 
Head, Fred. 
Head, Jeannie 
Hoffaker, Sarah E. 
Haylard, Peter 
Hichens, Ellen 
Haughton, Mary 
Inman, William 
Jantzen, Frederick 
Jantzen, Caroline 
Jantzen, Fred. J. 
Jantzen, Wm. 
Jantzen, Carrie 
Jantzen, Dora F. C. 
Jones, Seneca 
Jones, Elizabeth 
Jones, Joseph K. 
Jones, Kate 
Jones, Sallie 
Jones, Charles 
Jones, Emma 
Jones, Chas. J. 
Jones, Mary S. 
Jones, Laura 
Jones, John 
Jones, Mary 
Jones, Margaret 
Jones, Kate 
Jones, Eliza 
Jones, Delilah 
Jones, Annie 
Jones, Tillie 
Johnson, Elizabeth 



Johnson, John 
Johnson, Miss E. 
Jocelyn, Mrs. 
Jewell, Lottie B. 
Jewell, Addie J. 
Kinsman, Franklin 
Kinsman, Eliza 
Keys, Mary M. 
Kennet, Wm. 
Kennet, Sarah J. 
Keys, Alice 
King, Margaret 
King, Margaret S. 
Koster, John E. 
Kanouse, Carrie 
Koopman, Catherine 
Kline, Elizabeth % 

Kline, Julia 
Kentfield, Mrs. J. 
Lindsay, Fulton 
Lamb, Marietta 
Lattimer, George 
Lattimer, Sarah 
Lattimer, Willie 
Lattimer, George 
Luders', Joseph 
Lesley, William 
Landis, Amanda 
Lautermilch, Mrs. M. H. 
Latham, Joseph 
Latham, Mary 
Lawrence, Mrs. 
Large, Henry 
Large, Mary J. 
Linn, Mrs. M. 
Lane, Mrs. Mary 
Lane, Lizzie 
Lubeck, Hattie 
Lyons, Catherine A. 
Lowel Emma J. 
Lowrey, Amanda 
Lowrey, Delilah A. 



12 



PRESENT MEMBERS. 



McElroy, Robt. (Rev.) 
McElroy, Amanda R. 
Merrill, John R. 
Merrill, Lucy B. 
Miller, Peter C. 
Miller, Mrs. P. C. 
Miller, Jennie 
Mackin, Mrs. A. M. 
Minturn, Elizabeth 
McFaden, David 
McFaden, Eliza 
McFaden, Erne 
Mitchell, Francis 
Mitchell, James H. 
Mitchell, Laura 
Mitchell, May 
Markley, Rosaline 
Macomber, James 
Moyes, Chas. J. 
Mills, Mrs. H. B. 
Mealey, George 
McGladery, Miss 
Moore, James R. 
Morritt, Mrs. W. - 
Mincher, Isaac 
Mincher, Mrs. I. 
Mayhew, Ida 
McGuire, Alice 
Maulfair, Mary A. 
Miller, H. W. 
Marvin, Stephen B. 
Morrow. Lizzie 
McDonald, Neil T. 
McDonald, Elizabeth 
Melvin, Sophie 
Maclay, Sarah A. 
Noble, H. H. 
Nelson, Andrew 
Nelson, Elizabeth 
Nelson, Emily 
Nelson, Sarah 
Nickerson, F. A. 



Nickerson, Eliza 
Nickerson, Agnes 
Notley, Maria 
N orris, Richard 
Over, Andrew 
Osgood, Charles 
Ovens, William 
Ovens, Margaret Jessie 
O'Meara, Annie 
Oyler, John W. 
Peterson, Frederick 
Peterson, Hannah F. 
Perkins, William 
Perkins, Lydia 
Perkins, Chas. B. 
Perkins, Clara F. 
Perkins, William F. 
Perkins, Annie 
Porter, Wm. H. 
Porter, Margaret C. 
Percy, Jane 
Peacock, Amos 
Peacock, Alzurah 
Page, Delphine 
Palmer, W. F. 
Perry, Lois Acelia 
Perry, Herman F. 
Pengelly, Richard 
Pengelly, Lizzie 
Priest, Alice M. 
Philp, John 
Philp, Annie S. 
Pawning, Carrie 
Patterson, Mary 
Reynolds, Alice 
Reynolds, Mary W. 
Rice, Mrs. A. W. 
Reagan, John 
Reagan, Aurelia 
Reagan, Theresa 
Roberts, Aggie A. 
Rogers, Bella A. 



PRESENT MEMBERS. 



13 



Richardson, Judith 
Robertson, Archibald 
Robertson, Mrs. A. 
Robertson, Thos. J. 
Robertson, Edith 
Rovve, Katie 
Rowe, Hattie 
Rowe, Jennie B. 
Reagan, Lillie 
Riley, John F. 
Stitt, Robert 
Stitt, Joanna C. 
Stitt, John H. 
Stitt, Robert J, 
Stitt, Annie 
Smith, E. L. 
Smith, Huldah G. 
Sankey, Jeremiah 
Sankey, Katie 
Stringer, Ida 
Salisbury, Mary F. 
Schcrer, Eliza M. 
Scherer, Mary 
Stuart, Susan B. 
Stuart, Frankie B. 
Smith, Geo. W. 
Smith, T. B. 
Smith, Marian 
Smith, Jeremiah 
Smith, J. C. 
Smith, Mrs. J. C. 
Scott, Margaret 
Scott, Belle 

Simpson, Mrs. Abbie L. 
Stuart, John 
Shaw, Dillie 
Snyder, Mrs. E. L. 
Stay ton, Sarah 
Stodart, Mrs. S. A. 
Silva, Julia 
Stein, J. E. D. 
Stein, Flora 



Smith, Elvira R. 
Shields, Oscar W. 
Smith, Stephen 
Sephton, Henry 
Sephton, Victoria 
Shilleock, Hester 
Showers, Andrew 
Sinkinson, Elizabeth 
Shepard, Matilda 
Santee, Levi 
Santee, Ina 
Stoner, F. J. 
Smith, Mary H. 
Schultze, Julia 
Sprague, Abbie F. 
Smith, Mary 
Townsend, Sarah 
Thomas, Henry 
Thomas, Mary A. 
Tucker, Henrietta S. 
Thompson, Martha 
Turnbull, Maria C. 
Terschurun, Mrs. M. J. 
Taggart, Mrs. Clayton 
Thompson, Annie R. 
Telyea, Joseph 
Telyea, Martha 
Thornton, Richard 
Tarpley, Lindsey B. 
Tarpley, Mrs. S. C. 
Tillson, Wm. H. 
Taylor, Mabel 
Tinnin, Belle 
Teague, William 
Vaughn, Harmon B. 
Vaughn, Sophia 
Whiting, James W. 
Whiting, Annie 
Whittington, John 
Whittington, Margaret 
Whittington, John C. 
Warburton, Mrs. M. 



14 



PRESENT MEMBERS. 



Walker, Mrs. Jane 
Williams, Mrs. H. E. 
Williams, John A. 
Williams, Sallie F. 
Williams, John W. 
Williams, Jane E. 
Williams, Geo. A. 
Williams, Mrs. G. A. 
Williams, Mrs. J. F. 
Williams, Nellie 
Wilson. Andrew 
Wilson,' J. W. R. 
Walker, W. H. 



Winn, C. C. 
Winn, Mrs. H. S. 
Whittaker, Wm. 
Whittaker, Nellie 
Whittaker, Lottie 
Wagner, Harr 
Walkington, Eliza 
Walkington, Estelle M. 
Waddell, Robert 
Watson, Jane 
White, Lizzie 
Worth, Nellie M. 
Worth, Capt. 




J. M. BUFFINGTON. 



INTRODUCTION. 



When we resolved to observe a day of 
thanksgiving for emancipation from the 
thralldom of a debt which had merciless- 
ly goaded us on in interest-paying until 
its inflictions had become well nigh unbear- 
able, we had no purpose of issuing a me- 
morial volume, such as we now present to 
our friends and the members of the church. 
It was while we were in the midst of our 
rejoicings, that a former pastor, who had a 
part assigned him in the programme, sug- 
gested that the " Milestone " paper fur- 
nished by Robert. McElroy should be 
embalmed in the tw art immortal," and giv- 
en to all the church members. The idea 
found favor with all who heard it, and it 
was then and there resolved to print the 
paper referred to in pamphlet form. Sub- 
sequently a committee was chosen by the 
official board to carry forward the proposi- 
tion, and the material which asked and 
merited a place in the pamphlet began to 
accumulate until it was far too formidable 



16 INTRODUCTION. 

for the form proposed, and the book form 
was agreed upon. Subsequent action by 
the Quarterly Conference provided for its 
publication, and gave the committee full 
power in the matter. A Conference His- 
torical Society, which has for years been 
pleading with the churches to furnish 
sketches of history and incident, will rec- 
ognize this as in keeping with its designs 
and desires; and we assay this humble 
effort with the hope that others of our 
churches which organized early will fol- 
low in some way that will furnish the 
archives of the Society with the material it 
seeks. 

The services which called out the princi- 
pal article contained in this little volume 
were held in the church August 12th, 1883, 
and consisted of a Love-Feast service at 
9.30 A. M., led by the Rev. S. D. Simonds, 
one of the earliest pastors ; a Milestone 
service at 11 a. m., at which time Robert 
McElroy furnished the address referred to 
above, and which appears first in the series 
of articles ; and an evening service of short 
addresses by the former pastors present. 

Of the church decorations for the occa- 
sion, a reporter of one of the city papers 
says the interior of the edifice presented a 



INTRODUCTION. 17 

beautiful but chaste appearance. The base 
of the reading-desk was enveloped with a 
profusion of ferns, smilax, and flowers. On 
the top of the reading-desk, in front of the 
Bible, was a unique, gold-gilted vase of 
fuchsias. On each side of the pulpit was 
a slender tripod, adorned with variegated 
flowers ; in niches each side, in rear of 
the pulpit, were exhibited deciduous green- 
house shrubs. Immediately over the cen- 
ter of the rostrum, suspended in front of 
the organ gallery, was a beautiful life- 
size, gold-mounted portrait of the Rev. J. 
D. Blain, who was instrumental in the 
erection of this church. The librarians of 
the Sunday-school are credited with the ar- 
tistic taste revealed in the decorations. And 
adds, only four members are to-day con- 
nected with the church that were members 
when the church was erected in 1851. 
Seated on the platform were the Rev. Dr. 
H. Cox, Rev. S. D. Simonds, Rev. J. A. 
Bruner of Chico, Rev. W. S. Urmy of 
Modesto, Rev. D. A. Dryden, Rev. Dr. F. 
F. Jewell, the present pastor ; being the 
only pastors alive (but one) of the four- 
teen which have held the pastorate of this 
church since its organization. 

After the general opening, Dr. Jewell 



18 INTRODUCTION. 

spoke feelingly of a number of congratula- 
tory notes which he had been the recipient 
of from sister churches, and more especial- 
ly of one received from Brother Dille, pas- 
tor of the Central M. E. Church. He deep- 
ly regretted the absence of Dr. B'riggs, late 
pastor of this church, who was to have de- 
livered a brief address, but unfortunately 
his ministerial duties detained him. Rev. 
D. A. Dry den compared the life of a 
church to that of a child — its birth, pro- 
gressiveness, and final maturity. Some at 
birth are very feeble and poor, others of 
more auspicious circumstances are born, 
as it were, with a gold spoon in their 
mouths. Mr. Dry den expressed a convic- 
tion and belief as to the real source and 
final prosperity of the Howard Street M. E. 
Church, and credited the ultimate success 
of the church to the late Rev. J. D. Blain. 
Rev. W. S. Urmy said : " It is a pleasant 
thing to be here with you and unite in the 
Jubilee services. Next Thursday will be the 
16th of August ; thirty years ago that day I 
arrived in San Francisco from New York. 
I recall with ecstasy the happy days spent 
in our place of worship in Happy Valley, 
which stood near Mission Street, and not 
near Market Street, as Brother McElroy 



INTRODUCTION. 19 

said this morning ; it was in the hollow near- 
er RinconHill." He paid a compliment to 
the pillars of the church for their support 
during his pastorate. 

Captain Charles Goodall smilingly as- 
cended the rostrum, and in a genial manner 
said : "I am not an old member, although 
not a young man — that is to say, not so old 
in membership as some assembled here to- 
night. It is a quarter of a century since I 
became an official member of this church. 
Brother Urmy, as he informs you, was a 
young man then, with raven locks, which 
have since whitened with advancing years. 
We were just then coming to be prosper- 
ous ; even then I know of a kind sister who 
frequently came down to the Folsom Street 
church with a broom, and even brought 
candles. Our church was once so poor that 
Dr. Bannister came into church on some 
occasions and preached without breakfast. 
These were hard times with us. The first 
time I had the honor of forming an exten- 
sive opinion of the benevolent qualities of 
the late Rev. Brother Blain was in my of- 
fice. One morning a bummer, or tramp, 
entered and endeavored to negotiate the 
loan of fifty cents, and the tramp was not 
long in seeing the street; but what was my 



20 INTRODUCTION. 

surprise, a few minutes later, when he en- 
tered with Brother Blain, who asked for 
pen and ink, and wrote an order for the 
aforesaid tramp to get a meal at the Hill- 
man House. 

" I remonstrated with Brother Blain, and 
informed him of the true character of the 
individual. However, he said, 'I cannot 
see a poor fellow being in want of bread.' 
This tramp proceeded to the hotel and de- 
molished a square meal, and then went to 
Mr. Smith, the clerk, and demanded a 
quarter change on the order, stating he had 
an order for a four bit meal, and did not 
get a quarter's worth ; the result was, the 
tramp picked himself up in the street. 

Rev. J. A. Bruner in a pleasing manner 
informed the audience of the reception ex- 
tended to him on his arrival from Marys- 
ville. He was met by a delegation of mem- 
bers, which consisted of Brothers Goodall, 
McElroy, and Codington, who waited three 
days for him and his family. " The church 
was prosperous in these days," he said ; " I 
learned to love it, and God was with us, as 
he will be at the Grand Jubilee, when the 
books shall be opened to judge the world." 

Rev. S. D. Simonds excused himself from 
speaking on account of the lateness of the 



INTRODUCTION. 21 

hour; "but," said he, "I will present a 
specimen brick. You may have an eloquent 
preacher or speaker — in fact, I like to hear 
one myself ; you may have a profound 
theologian ; you may have friendly socials — 
but if you have not the grace of God in 
your hearts, it availeth nothing." 

Rev. Dr. H. Cox succeeded Brother Peck 
at this church, after persistent appeals from 
Bishop Baker and Bishop Kingsley. "Dr. 
Cox spoke of the revival which followed 
his wake to the church, and graphically 
portrayed the number of hundreds that 
found grace at this selfsame altar. The 
reverend gentleman continuing, said : " I 
never preached here without a breakfast 
[and placing his hand across his body], nor 
without a dinner either, which I suppose 
you all can guess [laughter] ; I always had 
the greatest delicacies that California could 
produce." 

Dr. Jewell concluded the Jubilee by 
briefly describing the pleasure he has de- 
rived by five years' pastorate. 

Some of the data furnished will be neces- 
sarily duplicated, as the history of the 
church and Sunday-school are separately 
furnished and prepared by different hands. 
Other portraits of those whose services 



22 INTRODUCTION. 

would plead for an appearance in the vol- 
ume have been sought but could not be 
obtained. That the unity and symmetry 
which should characterize and would ap- 
pear in a volume written by a single pen 
are lacking here, we concede and yet do not 
regret, as the purpose is to furnish incident 
and give permanent record to events con- 
nected with the early struggles and con- 
quests of Methodism in San Francisco. It 
is not intended for general circulation, but 
rather to remain in the families of our com- 
munion, as a hand-book and manual to 
furnish inspiration and awaken gratitude 
in .the hearts of our church family. 

To the members and friends of the How- 
ard Street Methodist Episcopal Church 
this volume is affectionately inscribed by 
THE COMMITTEE. 




r. Mcelroy. 

Treasurer Board Trustees. 



HISTORICAL SKETCH. 



BY E. MCELROY. 



This society came into being in 1851. 
Its early history was fraught with severe 
struggle an( l great uncertainty. At that 
time San Francisco society was in a very 
crude condition. It was made up of peo- 
ple from every nation under the sun, most 
of whom had no fear of God or disposition 
to serve him. Indeed, the mass were whol- 
ly given up to the practice of profligacy 
and irreligion. The absorbing passion was 
for gold, and perhaps there is no passion of 
the human breast so absorbing and so in- 
tensely demoralizing as this insatiate greed 
for gold. It stops not at any cost to se- 
cure its object. It does not hesitate to sac- 
rifice everything that is noble and godlike 
in man's nature to gratify. its quenchless 
longings. It reduces its victim to a cring- 
ing sycophant or demonizes him into a re- 
morseless fiend. It robs him of all individ- 
ual comfort, and makes him the veriest 
galley-slave to toil. It wears out every 



24 HISTORICAL SKETCH. 

fiber of the body, every faculty of the 
mind, and every heaven-born aspiration of 
the soul. It engenders plottings the most 
vicious, schemes the most unscrupulous, 
and deeds the most dark and damning. It 
is a stranger alike to mercy and justice. 
It heeds not the cry of the needy, nor has 
it any pity for the oppressed. It is sordid 
to the last degree, selfish without the 
thought of another, and stony as the very 
adamant. Under its stimulus, virtue be- 
comes a matter of merchandise, and every 
lofty impulse of the human heart paralyzed 
and dead. Where it reigns supreme all 
honor is gone, all honesty at an end, all 
virtue no more, and all veracity buried in 
Lethe's deepest waters. Surely, no truth 
of Holy Writ stands out in bolder relief or 
is more fully drawn to the life than that 
" the love of money is the root of all evil." 

For gold most of the then population had 
left their homes in other lands ; for this they 
had sundered every sacred tie, had bid 
farewell to wives and children, had aban- 
doned churches and church relationships, 
had sacrificed farms and homesteads ; and 
so, when they reached this city, gold must 
be secured — no matter how or at what cost 
of brain or muscle, of personal dignity or 



HISTORICAL SKETCH. 25 

self-respect ; no matter what violation of 
conscience or wreck of moral principle was 
deemed necessary to capture tins beau-ideal 
of all ambition — the sacrifice, however great 
and terrible, was most freely made. Gold 
must be bad by fair means or by foul. 
This was the ingrain sentiment of the com- 
munity. No wonder, then, that many who 
in other lands bad borne the sacred name of 
Christian, and even minister of Christ, now 
abandoned themselves to all manner of fla- 
grant sin, and became the vilest of the vile ; 
no wonder that every street, both night and 
day, resounded with swelling strains of 
band music to lure the simple into haunts 
of vice ; no wonder that open doors of gam- 
bling-houses were seen on every hand ; no 
wonder that faro-banks and o-ames of 
chance were as much a matter of open 
business as were the sale of merchandise 
or the pursuit of any legitimate calling. 
Nor was it a matter of wonder that murder 
and robbery were of almost daily occur- 
rence, and were looked upon as compara- 
tively innocent amusements. Of course 
these crimes were but a certain process of 
making money, and was not making money 
perfectly legitimate? If a man would not 
stand up and deliver his money to the foot- 



26 HISTORICAL SKETCH. 

pad, why, of course he ought to be mur- 
dered for his want of magnanimity. And 
so natural law was constantly invaded, and 
the natural rights of man incessantly vio- 
lated, all under the driving force of this ab- 
sorbing passion for gold. How unfriendly, 
then, was such a public sentiment to any or- 
ganization which had for its object the sup- 
pression of vice and the reformation of the 
vicious ! How utterly indisposed were a peo- 
ple ruled and entirely under the dominion 
of so base a passion to aid any party in the 
promotion of pure and undefiled religion ! 

Another reason which made church work 
in those days so exceedingly difficult was 
the universal purpose on the part of the 
people to leave the country just as soon as 
they could wring success out of their oppor- 
tunities. No one came to build up a per- 
manent business or a permanent home. 
Not a man could be found who did not in- 
tend immediately after making his " pile " 
to return to his home, be that home in 
whatever part of the world it might. This 
State was a mere place of sojourn, where 
no one considered himself a citizen, and 
where no anchor held his moorings. Just 
as soon as the vessel was f reighted, the cable 
was loosed, the sails set and spread to the 



HISTORICAL SKETCH. 27 

breeze, and the prow turned toward the 
port whence she came. So was the popula- 
tion ever shifting ; so were the elements 
from which organizations were to be built, 
if built at all, ever eluding your grasp, for 
even the unsuccessful were constantly mi- 
grating. From one mining section to 
another, from city to city, from town to 
town, and from camp to camp, so did the 
human tide constantly surge. With pick 
and shovel, with pan and blanket, the 
moving mass trod its weary way through 
scorching heat and drenching rain, in eager 
pursuit of the shining dust. No other 
thought absorbed the brain but how that 
dust could be amassed and carried back to 
that home in the far East, where the wife 
sat in lonely expectancy, and the children 
left their play and asked in vain for him 
who had been the joy of their young life 
and the hope of their advancing years. 
Talk to such an one about organizing a 
church or establishing religious services in 
the place of his sojourn, even though he had 
a church letter in his pocket, and he would 
turn a deaf ear to your entreaty, or solemnly 
assure you that here he had no abiding- 
place, and hence had no need for a church 
home in these ends of the earth. 



28 HISTORICAL SKETCH. 

But notwithstanding all these discourage- 
ments, a few devout ones, under the lead of 
Rev. W. Taylor, the pioneer Methodist 
preacher of this coast, determined to organ- 
ize themselves into a society which should 
be known as the Second M. E. Church of 
San Francisco. The organization, however, 
was not complete until January, 1852, when 
the Rev. M. C. Briggs became its pastor, 
and the Happy Valley schoolhouse, which 
stood about where the Grand Hotel now 
stands, its temporary habitation. The num- 
ber of its original members was twenty- 
three, four of whom remain with us till 
this day. These are Brother and Sister 
J. W. Whiting, and Brother and Sister 
Seneca Jones. The others are mostly with 
the Master in the skies, where they rest 
from their labors, but have left the rich 
fruit of their devotion for us to enjoy. 

Foremost among this little band was Rev. 
M. E. Willing, a local elder, who came to 
this coast at that early day to represent the 
book interest of the church. This man of 
God was at once recognized as the lay leader 
of the little society ; and by his wise coun- 
sels and energetic measures, conduced, very 
much to its early prosperity. He was its 
first class-leader, its first recording steward, 



HISTOKICAL SKETCH. 29 

and its second Sunday-school superintend- 
ent. His return to the Atlantic States in 
the latter part of 1852 was a great loss to 
the society ; but his memory is still cher- 
ished among us as a man who stood bravely 
against the torrent of worldliness and lifted 
high the banner of the Cross in the midst 
of California's intensest Mammon-worship. 
This little flock went to work with true 
California energy to build up a church 
whose influence would be felt for good in 
the midst of the prevailing ungodliness, but 
their numbers were few and their means 
limited. Their pastor was gifted with un- 
usual ability, but other duties claimed a part 
of his service, as he was also one of the edi- 
tors of the " California Christian Advocate," 
the publication of which began in October, 
1851. He however gave the society all 
the service possible, preaching with great 
acceptability every Sabbath until about 
the first of March, 1852, when he was 
called East on a two-fold mission : first, 
to attend the General Conference which 
convened in Boston in May of that year ; 
and second, to join his destiny to one who 
has since been to him, through all these 
thirty years of married life, a constant bap- 
tism of blessedness, and to the church an 



30 HISTORICAL SKETCH. 

ever-increasing benediction. The little so- 
ciety, however, was not left without a pas- 
tor, for about that time the Rev. George S. 
Phillips came at the bidding of the authori- 
ties of the church to this coast, and was im- 
mediately placed in charge, to remain dur- 
ing the pastor's absence. Brother Phillips 
gave himself fully to the work of the 
church, and was exceedingly efficient in 
both pulpit and pastorate. Meantime, the 
membership was increased by parties who 
were constantly arriving from the East 
with church letters, insomuch that the little 
schoolhouse became too inconvenient for 
the congregation, and the question of 
church site and church building was 
forced upon their consideration. A lot 
on Folsom Street had previously been se- 
cured for the society through the efforts 
of Rev. W. Taylor, but it was then too far 
from the center of population to be of any 
service, and so the Board determined to se- 
cure a site, if possible, on Market Street, 
near the place of their meeting. Soon the 
opportunity arrived, and a large lot was 
bought and paid for. This was situated 
on Market Street, and is a part of the 
ground now covered by the Palace Hotel. 
We all thought the church had secured a 



HISTORICAL SKETCH. 31 

princely estate, but at that time there were 
no clean titles in the city, as every inch of 
available space was the battle-ground of 
many conflicting interests ; and to make 
matters worse, there were but few clean 
courts who would impartially adjudicate 
these interests. Many of these were 
so corrupt that judicial decisions rarely 
went in favor of justice, but the size of 
the litigants' " pile " not unfrequently de- 
termined the character of the decision. 
Indeed, many of these decisions had no 
stability whatever, for they were often re- 
versed almost before the ink had dried 
upon the paper upon which they had been 
written. It was very common for even 
supreme judges to reverse their own de- 
cisions, and not unfrequently was this done 
on the most flimsy pretense and for the 
most trifling reasons. It was therefore 
soon discovered that, although the church 
had honestly bought the lot and paid a full 
price for it in gold coin, its title must be 
questioned, and its trustees brought into 
these courts to defend their right to the 
property. Not only were they sued at the 
law, but those who held possession for 
the church were summarily dispossessed 
by hired rowdies, who came against them 



32 HISTORICAL SKETCH. 

with bludgeons and pistols. Possession be- 
ing now gone, and that being nine points in 
law, the case at once became exceeding;- 
ly dubious. However, it was stoutly con- 
tested, both in State and United States 
courts for a number of years, but at length 
the old trustees, becoming wearied and worn 
out with the fruitless and expensive litiga- 
tion, abandoned the contest, and so this 
princely property went forever from the 
grasp of its rightful owner, and thus was 
practically demonstated the fearful fact 
that man will rob God. 

The pastor, Brother Briggs, returned 
from his Eastern trip after six months' ab- 
sence, and resumed his labors in the charge, 
in connection with his substitute, who also 
remained his assistant to the end of the 
year. The General Conference which had 
recently held its session in Boston had cre- 
ated two Conferences out of the Oregon 
and California Mission Conference, and 
henceforth both the Oregon and Califor- 
nia Conferences were to be vested with 
all the rights and privileges of the older 
Conferences, and Bishop Ames, who had 
just been elected and ordained by this Gen- 
eral Conference, had been appointed to hold 
the first sessions of these new Conferences. 



HISTORICAL SKETCH. S3 

Accordingly, the Bishop readied this city, 
in pursuance of his work, in January, 1853. 
He was joyfully welcomed by every Meth- 
odist on the coast, as his arrival was an 
epoch of momentous interest in the his- 
tory of our little Zion. He preached his 
first sermon in California on January 24th, 
in the Happy Valley schoolhouse, and the 
service was one of intense interest to all 
present. The Bishop at this service ad- 
ministered the sacrament of infant bap- 
tism. This was the first child baptized in 
the society. Only think of infants in Cal- 
ifornia in the first month of 1853 ! The 
family was an exceedingly scarce institu- 
tion in this community in those days, as 
most of the population were exclusively 
men. On this day the Quarterly Confer- 
ence was held at which the first Board of 
Trustees was appointed. It consisted of 
Seneca Jones, Charles Merriman, Horace 
Hoag, John Payne, W. H. Coddington, J. 
W. Whiting, and James Christy. Four of 
these are still living in this city, and two 
still members of the church. This Quar- 
terly Conference also licensed the first 
preacher, and recommended him to the 
Annual Conference. His name was John 
Bennum. This brother was one of God's 

2* 



34 HISTORICAL SKETCH. 

choicest gems, for he was not only very 
gifted, but exceedingly sweet-spirited and 
thoroughly consecrated to the work of his 
Master. He was received by the Annual 
Conference and sent to a circuit in the 
mines. He had not labored long, how- 
ever, before he was drowned in attempting 
to ford a swollen stream ; and so he was 
not, for God took him. 

The first session of the California Confer- 
ence convened in the Powell Street Church 
February 3rd, 1853. AVhen the appoint- 
ments were announced, this charge was left 
to be supplied, which was a great disap- 
pointment to the people, as they had fully 
expected the return of their pastor, Brother 
Briggs. He however was sent to the 

CIO * 

stronger church on Powell Street, and this 
little vine had to wait for several weeks for 
a vine-dresser to be imported from the 
East. The importation, however, arrived, 
and it proved to be Rev. N. P. Heath, a 
man of fine talent and thorough devotion. 
He at once set on foot measures to secure a 
house of worship, as there seemed no pros- 
pect of permanent success without this. 
Up to this time the society had been like 
Noah's dove, with no place whereon to 
light its weary feet. It had migrated be- 



HISTORICAL SKETCH. 35 

tween the Happy Valley schoolhouse and 
Music Hall, a public building that stood on 
Bush Street where now stands the Occi- 
dental Hotel. The new pastor determined 
that this migration should cease by the so- 
ciety utilizing its lot on Folsom Street, by 
building a church thereon. This, however, 
was an unwise decision, for the lot was 
situated amid sand dunes, with scarcely any 
population about it. If the church, located 
there, should have any congregation, the 
people must come from a long distance, and 
wade through almost impassable sand drifts 
at that. But notwithstanding these serious 
objections, the plan was carried out, and 
$5,000 were borrowed, at three per cent per 
month interest, with which to build the 
church. The property was mortgaged for 
that amount, and from that moment its 
troubles began. The house was finished 
and dedicated on January 7th, 1854, and 
regular services commenced within its 
walls. There seemed, however, little else 
than constant discouragement, for the con- 
gregation was very small, and the $150 per 
month interest money which had to be met, 
together with all other current expenses of 
the church, weighed so heavily upon the 
society that it came very near disbanding. 



36 HISTOKICAL SKETCH. 

The little band worked nobly, and did all 
in their power to meet their ever-recurring 
obligations ; but the load was too heavy, and 
had not the Missionary Society come to 
their rescue, the whole property would have 
been sacrificed and the society driven to 
pieces. 

Rev. Dr. Bannister, of precious memory, 
served as pastor during the Conference 
year of 1854, and nobly did that royal man 
endure the privations to which he wa« sub- 
ject, that perchance he might save the honor 
of the cause. 

In 1855 Rev. D. A. Dryden was appoint- 
ed pastor, but as he was unable to live on 
the wind, he remained in the charge but a 
little time, and during the balance of the 
year the pulpit was filled with preachers 
who gave their services gratuitously. 

Meantime, the class meetings were regu- 
larly kept up, one of which, under the lead- 
ership of Robert Stitt, was held at the 
residence of Franklin Kinsman, whose house 
was ever open, like that of Mary and Mar- 
tha, both to the man of Nazareth and his 
followers. Father and Mother Kinsman 
still linger among us, listening patiently for 
the footfall of the messenger who shall 
bring the Master's call for them to go up 



HISTORICAL SKETCH. 87 

higher, where silvered hairs shall be changed 
to golden locks, and where the wrinkles of 
age shall fade into the bloom of eternal 
youth. 

In 1856 Rev. N. P. Heath was again 
sent to the charge, and the Parent Mission- 
ary Society of the M. E. Church made an 
appropriation of $1,-100 to pay the mortgage 
and save the property from execution ; and 
thus was this society kept into being and 
its property rescued from the sheriff's ham- 
mer. But Brother Heath only remained 
in the charge long enough to consummate 

O O <T5 

this business, when he bade farewell to Cal- 
ifornia and returned to the East, where he 
did efficient service for a number of years, 
and then went to behold the wonderful 
revealments of the Heavenly land. 

Rev. W. S. Urmy, who at the Conference 
had been stationed at Alameda, was brought 
from that charge to take the place of 
Brother Heath, and fill out the balance of 
the year. The society now being free from 
debt, and the terrible cloud which had so 
long hovered over it and threatened its 
very existence having passed away, the 
charge at once entered upon a career of 
uninterrupted prosperity. In the mean 
time, the population in the vicinity of the 



38 HISTORICAL SKETCH. 

church had materially increased, and the 
streets approaching it had been rendered 
quite accessible by grading and side walk- 
ing. Also several members from Powell 
Street charge had moved into the neighbor- 
hood, and become identified with the work 
here. Among these were Captain Good all 
and his family, wdiose praise has since been 
in all the churches, and whose generous 
deeds are constantly bringing out the true 
luster of their character. The young pas- 
tor gave himself vigorously to the work, 
and therefore the congregation grew, and 
the spirituality of the devotional meetings 
greatly increased. The year ended with 
much prosperity, and the outlook was 
bright indeed. At the Conference of 1857, 
Brother Urmy was returned, and served 
with acceptability and success during the 
year. The class and prayer meetings were 
exceedingly profitable, and much revival 
interest prevailed. Several conversions oc- 
curred, and some were brought into the 
fold at that time who remain with us till 
this day. Among these are Captain An- 
drew Nelson and family, whose faithful 
services along all these years have added 
both to our material and spiritual prosper- 
ity. 



HISTORICAL SKETCH. 39 

At the Conference of 1858, Rev. J. A. 
Brunei* became the pastor. He at once, 
by the urbanity of his manner and the 
sweetness of his spirit, won all hearts to 
himself, and gained a power for usefulness 
which resulted in great o-ood to the cause. 
Many were the trophies won to God during 
that year of excessive labor and earnest 
toil. Xo people ever worked in greater 
harmony with their pastor, and no pastor 
was ever more fully imbued with intense 
love for perishing souls. Well do I remem- 
ber how earnestly he wept between the 
porch and the altar, and how greatly he 
travailed for souls. The result was a glo- 
rious revival, which added many to the 
church, some of whom became the most 
efficient laborers that ever came within 
our portals. Among these were Daniel S. 
Howard and John Cady of precious mem- 
ory, and scores of others whom I might 
mention. Greatly to the regret of the en- 
tire church, Brother Bruner thought that 
his wife's health demanded her removal 
from the city at the end of the year, and 
so his pastorate did not embrace the full 
constitutional term. 

The Conference of 1859 gave us Rev. S. 
D. Simonds for our oastor. He was no 



40 HISTORICAL SKETCH. 

stranger to the church, for he had previ- 
ously lived several years in the city, and 
had done valiant battle for God as editor of 
the " California Christian Advocate " in 
the times that tried men's souls. So ear- 
nest was he in attacking vice through the 
columns of Ids paper, that he himself was 
attacked by a hired would-be assassin. 
The wretch's bludgeon, however, failed of 
executing his murderous purpose, and so 
the man of God was saved to exercise 
pastoral care over this church that had now 
grown into a prominent position of useful- 
ness. Brother Simonds began and prose- 
cuted his labors with great industry and 
energy, preaching, praying, and visiting 
from house to house incessantly, and suc- 
ceeded during the two years of his pastor- 
ate in increasing quite largely the number 
of his personal friends and the friends of 
the church. 

At the Conference of 1861 Rev. J. D. 
Blain assumed the pastorate. His appoint- 
ment was an'exceedingly fortunate one for 
the society, for he came to us determined 
to give us the full benefit of his great abil- 
ity. This ability did not consist in wonder- 
ful pyrotechnic displays of pulpit eloquence, 
and yet he was eloquent ; nor did it con- 



HISTORICAL SKETCH. 41 

sist in massive demonstrations of logic, and 
vet he was logical ; but it did consist in the 
wonderful symmetry of his character, where- 
in all the forces of his nature were so ad- 
justed as to be worked to the highest degree 
of usefulness. He had untiring industry : 
time was too precious for him to squander 
a single moment. He had intense devotion 
to his work; all his thoughts centered on 
this. He had common practical sense to 
the highest degree ; there was nothing vis- 
ionary or unfeasible about his plans, but 
these were laid in the highest wisdom, and 
when brought to their practical working, 
developed into the most vital efficiency. 
He had the most perfect knowledge of hu- 
man nature, and knew just how to touch 
the secret springs of every person with 
whom he came in contact. He was, there- 
fore, a born leader of men. His will was 
indomitable, his energy unflagging. He 
knew no discouragement, and could brook 
no failure. When once his plans were set- 
tled, his impetuous nature took them up 
and worked them out with the resistless 
energy of a Niagara. He was a man of 
exceeding suavity of manner, insomuch that 
he had a kind and pleasant word for every 
one. He readily remembered all faces and 



42 HISTORICAL SKETCH. 

all names, and hence always recognized all 
whom he had once seen. He was particu- 
larly careful to interest himself in strangers, 
and none such came to his church without 
a personal salutation from him before leav- 
ing the sanctuary. He also went from 
house to house, through street and lane, in 
quest of lone and homesick ones. Was it 
any wonder, then, that his church at once 
filled uj) to overflowing ? Was it any mar- 
vel that seats, and aisles, and altars, and 
pulpit had not space to accommodate the 
crowding mass who came to his ministry? 
Had such not been the case, humanity 
would have been untrue to herself ; for 
generally is it the fact that, however de- 
graded men or women become, however 
sunken in vice or hardened in crime, kind- 
ness and sympathy will awaken in their sin- 
seared hearts love and respect for the one 
who bestows the boon upon them. Nor 
was it surprising that the trustees, driven 
by this state of facts, began to devise meas- 
ures for the enlargement of their church 
accommodations. This they could not do 
upon their present site, and so a change of 
location was forced upon their considera- 
tion. It was felt that the time had come 
for Methodism in this city to take an ag- 



HISTORICAL SKETCH. 43 

gressive step, and plant herself in a position 
where she could more fully exercise the 
wonderful appliances of her economy for 
the good of men. The church, although 
growing and prosperous, although full of 
hope and courage, yet it was comparatively 
poor and moneyless. And while the trus- 
tees were determined on forward measures, 
yet the ways and means became a matter of 
serious question, for we had not a single 
rich man among us and not an advance dol- 
lar in the treasury. We had only our 
church property as a capital with which to 
begin the new enterprise. And yet so great 
was our necessity for larger facilities to 
carry on our work, and so unbounded was 
our confidence in the skill of our pastor to 
push forward the enterprise to a successful 
issue, that we determined to embark at once 
in the undertaking. Accordingly, in Au- 
gust, 1862, this lot was purchased at a cost 
of some $15,000, $8,000 of which was ad- 
vanced by four brethren with which to 
make the first payment. Measures were 
inaugurated to sell our church property at 
once, and in a little time a purchaser was 
found at $8,000. This money was returned 
to the brethren who had made the first pay- 
ment on the new lot. We also sold portions 



44 HISTORICAL SKETCH. 

of the new lot, which gave us money enough 
to pay the balance that was due on its pur- 
chase. So that the case then stood that we 
had our present church and parsonage lot 
in exchange for church and lot on Folsom 
Street. The purchaser of our Folsom Street 
property insisted on having immediate pos- 
session, and so we became for a little time 
homeless but not friendless. The Howard 
Presbyterian Church were then worshiping 
in a small house situated on the corner of 
Jane and Natoma Streets, and they very 
generously offered us the use of their prem- 
ises. This kind and fraternal offer was 
thankfully accepted, and our church and 
Sunday-school services were transferred to 
that temple. 

Meanwhile, the parsonage was removed 
from the old lot to the new, and the work 
of erecting this church commenced. So 
limited were our means and so small our 
resources, that we at first determined to let 
contracts only for the basement. The brick- 
work was assigned to Brother E. B. Sam- 
mis, and the carpenter-work to Brother 
James Harlow ; both of whom belonged to 
the Board of Trustees, and therefore had 
more than a selfish interest in the enter- 
prise. These brethren were faithful to 



HISTORICAL SKETCH. 45 

their trusts, and worked with great vigor 
and dispatch, so that not many weeks 
elapsed before the basement was ready for 
occupancy. It was covered over with a 
temporary asphalt um roof, and our Israel 
removed the Ark of the Lord within its 
walls. To connect the old with the new, 
the seats from the old church were brought 
down and placed in position, and served a 
useful purpose in the basement, until the 
Central Church was built, when they were 
transferred to that house, and thus gave 
ocular demonstration of their itinerant pro- 
clivities. During all these weeks, the pas- 
tor had not been idle; for in addition to 
performing all his pulpit and pastoral du- 
ties, he w r as incessant in soliciting and col- 
lecting money to carry on the enterprise, 
and so successful was he in this department, 
that no laborer on this temple ever went 
an hour unpaid when his money was due. 
Having now a commodious and comfortable 
basement to winter in, we rested from our 
material labors, and gave ourselves more 
fully to the spiritual services of the church. 
The winter was passed with much profit to 
the people, as all the services were most 
intensely interesting. Sinners were con- 
verted, and saints were greatly strength.- 



46 HISTORICAL SKETCH. 

ened and built up in holiness and godly 
living. A constant baptism from the excel- 
lent glory rested upon all who came within 
our borders, and a divine afflatus filled the 
temple continually. We needed no further 
demonstration that our offering was ac- 
cepted, and that our enterprise had won the 
divine approval ; and so it was determined 
that when the spring had opened and the 
rains ceased, the enterprise should be 
pushed to its completion. Our pastor 
nerved himself to the task, and resumed the 
work of soliciting funds ; and many a weary 
day did he tramp these streets, and many a 
night did he return to the parsonage foot- 
sore., and worn, but not discouraged. The 
Board of Trustees stood nobly by his side, 
and held nightly sessions, lasting often till 
midnight, in devising schemes and suggest- 
ing plans for the advancement of the work ; 
and so we builded the walls, working in 
great harmony and w r ith great heart, until 
all was completed. And then the ladies 
undertook the work of upholstering and 
furnishing, and magnificently did they suc- 
ceed. Herculean work did they perform, 
insomuch that at one fair at Piatt's Hall 
they made over $5,000 for the treasury. 
The temple was dedicated on the 18th of 



HISTORICAL SKETCH. 47 

October, 1863, Rev. Dr. J.T. Peck preach- 
ing the sermon ; but the joyfulness of the 
occasion was marred by the knowledge 
that one, who had been most active and ef- 
ficient in promoting the enterprise, lay 
bleeding and dying at his home, and could 
not mingle in the services of the hour. 
Daniel S. Howard, one of the trustees, who 
had given his time and money and wonder- 
ful energy, from the moment the scheme 
was inaugurated till the finishing touch 
was given the edifice, had but a day or two 
before met with a fearful accident through 
a runaway horse, by which both legs were 
broken, and the nervous system so shocked 
that death resulted October 20th, 1863. 
We brought his precious remains to this 
altar, and his was the first funeral eulogy 
pronounced from this desk. Sad, indeed, 
that it so soon should be consecrated to such 
service ! But Brother Howard was ready; 
Oh, how ready ! He had been steadily 
growing in grace, becoming sweeter and 
purer in spirit, receiving greater manifesta- 
tions of divine glory, for the entire year 
preceding his death ; and when the sudden 
call came, he simply responded, " Yes, Lord 
Jesus, I come quickly." Twenty years 
have flown since that time, but his name is 



48 HISTORICAL SKETCH. 

green and fresh in the memory of his asso- 
ciates of that day, and it cannot fade from 
the records of this church while a brick or 
stone of the temple remains. Nor will li is 
work then cease, for the results of his earth- 
ly labor can only be gathered when the har- 
vest is garnered in the skies. 

Another of the trustees who had been 
specially active in the promotion of the 
work, and had in fact been the master 
builder of these foundations and walls till 
the topmost stone was reached, Edward B. 
Sammis, was attacked with bronchitis and 
hemorrhage of the lungs, and was com- 
pelled to leave the coast and return to his 
home in Brooklyn, New York, just before 
the dedication took place. He lingered for 
a few months after his arrival there, hover- 
ing on the brink of death's dark river, when 
the seething billows arose and swept him 
into that world beyond the flood, where the 
temple is already built and the laborers are 
at rest. Our love for this peerless man 
was so great, and our respect for him so 
profound, that a special minute was made 
on the records of the Board, regretting his 
departure and conveying to him our most 
tender sympathy and Christian regards. 
But a higher record has been made of his 



HISTORICAL SKETCH. 49 

glorious deeds, and his name is all glittering 
witli golden light as it stands upon the fore- 
most page of the Lamb's Book of Life. 

Nor should we fail to mention other 
names whose owners were conspicuous in 
their labors for the interests of the church. 
Such men as Frederick A. Beardsley, 
James Harlow, and Samuel S. Sprague 
were ever ready to aid in the promotion of 
its welfare, nor did their attachment cease 
till the Master beckoned them to the skies. 
They were exceedingly efficient in that de- 
partment of the work that each was best 
fitted for. Harlow was wise in counsel as 
to all mechanical matters, Sprague earnest 
and untiring in collecting church revenues, 
Beardsley always on the alert to advance 
church interests in whatever form possible. 
And so they labored in the Master's vine- 
yard till the evening hour came, when they 
quit the field of toil for the sweet rest of 
heaven. We mournfully laid their ashes 
in earth's last receptacle, where they await 
the reconstruction touch of the resurrection 
morn, when they shall rise, fashioned after 
the similitude of Christ's glorious body. 

The Conference came which ended 
Brother Blain's constitutional term before 
the church was dedicated, and it was 



50 HISTORICAL SKETCH. 

agreed that the charge should be left to 
be supplied, and Brother Blain take a su- 
pernumerary relation without an appoint- 
ment, so that he might act as the supply 
under the appointment of the Presiding El- 
der. In this way he remained the pastor 
of the church for the third year. This 
was thought indispensable to the safety of 
the enterprise, inasmuch as there were 
many unpaid subscriptions that he only 
could collect. At the dedication all bills 
were brought in, and the whole account 
was made up. It was found that we had 
expended some $65,000, 114,000 of which 
w T e still owed. The people had done so 
nobly that we had no heart to press them 
further for money, and so we concluded to 
carry this debt till the money forces of the 
church had recuperated sufficiently to war- 
rant another effort being made. So the 
money was borrowed— $10,000 on mortgage, 
and $4,000 on the trustees' note — and all 
bills were fully paid. Being treasurer of 
the Board through the whole enterprise, 
and knowing whereof I affirm, I can truth- 
fully say that no banking institution ever 
met its obligations with more promptitude 
than did the trustees of this church during 
all its building operations ; nor was there 



HISTORICAL SKETCH. 51 

any moneyed institution in the city that had 
a better credit than it for the amount it 
needed to borrow. 

Relieved of this intense money strain, 
Brother Blain now gave himself fully to the 
pulpit and the pastorate, preaching with 
great acceptability, and leading on the host 
with large success. He retained his hold 
on the affections of the people up to the 
last of his ministry in the charge. 

During the last year of Brother Blain's 
administration measures were taken to in- 
augurate a new church to the westward, 
whither a large population had settled. 
The Howard Street Board accordingly 
leased a lot on the south side of Mission 
Street, between Sixth and Seventh, and 
built a chapel thereon for Sunday-school 
and church purposes. A Sunday-school 
was at once organized and officered from 
members of our own church, and James 
F. Smith was its first superintendent. He 
was assisted by a corps of as earnest Sun- 
day-school workers as ever engaged in 
that most laudable enterprise, and it was 
not long before they had gathered into the 
school from the surrounding community a 
large number of scholars, so that scarcely 
a year of existence had elapsed before the 



52 HISTORICAL SKETCH. 

school numbered its hundreds of intensely 
interested and earnest workers. At the Con- 
ference of 1864, the enterprise shaped into 
a church organization, and took the name of 
the Central M. E. Church of San Francisco, 
and Brother Blain was appointed its pastor. 
We gave to this enterprise some fifty of 
our membership, and a large share of finan- 
cial and sympathetic aid. In fact, it was 
our own child, and why should we not 
cherish and nourish it till its own strength 
should allow it to go alone? That branch 
has since grown into a strong and sturdy 
tree, and is now producing abundant fruit 
to the glory of God. Of course, to reach 
its present state of prosperous usefulness, 
it lias had many severe struggles, but its 
brave and sturdy ones have undauntedly 
carried the work forward with true Chris- 
tian heroism and great self-denial. 

Just before the lease expired to the Mis- 
sion Street lot, the northeast corner of 
Sixth and Minna Streets was purchased for 
its permanent habitation, and the chapel 
was moved to this lot. It was a magnifi- 
cent selection, as the lot was eighty feet 
front and one hundred feet deep, and being 
on a corner afforded very fine lighting 
facilities. Its frontage was also on a pros- 



HISTORICAL SKETCH. 53 

pective business street, and needed only 
time to develop into a magnificent property, 
which should not only form ample church 
accommodations for the society above, but 
also afford a grand opportunity to line its 
front below with a row of stores, whose 
revenue for all time could have been used 
for church extension or other evangelizing 
movements. But, as is generally the case 
with church enterprises, the society was 
too poor to wait for this surely coming 
financial opportunity, and so the lot was 
sold for the same amount that it cost, and 
its present site was purchased for a smaller 
price, and the little chapel again put on 
wheels and removed to the new purchase. 
Here it remained till the present edifice 
supplanted it. And so has this society 
moved onward and upward in the increase 
of its church appliances, and the magnitude 
of its glorious career of human elevation 
and human salvation. And so has the How- 
ard Street Church supplemented its own 
direct efforts by the wonderfully energized 
industry of this its most queenly daughter. 
And who can tell the magnitude of its use- 
fulness by founding this new evangelizing 
agency? None till the books are opened at 
the last assize, when the sum of human 
weal and woe shall be revealed. 



54 HISTORICAL SKETCH. 

Among those who greatly aided us in 
this work were some outside friends — out- 
side so far as actual church membership is 
concerned, but outside in no other sense, for 
they were in the congregation as regularly 
as any of us ; they were also at all social 
and devotional meetings of the church ; yea, 
they were members of the Board of Trus- 
tees, and participated most fully in all our 
plans for our material advancement. They 
were foremost in the extent' of their sub- 
scriptions, and lavish in the fullness of their 
contributions. And so did William H. 
Gawley labor in the outer court to build 
the temple. And so did Robert Gr. Bixby 
furnish a large share of counsel and of cash. 
And in later time William H. Howland 
gave us much valuable aid. These names 
will remain emblazoned upon our record as 
those who evinced by their noble acts a 
great love for our Methodist nation, and a 
great disposition to assist in building lis a 
sanctuary. 

The Conference of 1864 gave us Rev. 
Dr. J. T. Peck for our pastor. His first 
year was quite successful, and resulted in 
canceling the floating debt of $4,000. It 
also added to the church over one hundred 
probationers as the result of a gracious re- 



HISTORICAL SKETCH. 55 

vival. He was reappointed in 1865, but 
did not remain in the charge more than 
half the year, his wife's health necessitat- 
ing- his return to the East. After his de- 
parture, the church was placed in my 
charge, and the pulpit was mostly supplied 
with what ministerial help we could con- 
veniently secure. The social meetings were 
well attended, and the spirituality and prof- 
itableness of those meetings were matter of 
universal comment. During this year the 
organ was purchased and placed in the gal- 
lery, at a cost of some $2,500. But the 
money was not raised to pay for it, and 
therefore the debt was increased by that 
amount. 

After the departure of Dr. Peck, it was 
thought by some that the salvation of the 
church depended upon the importation from 
the East of some distinguished Doctor of 
Divinity, who should be able to cope with 
the giant evils of this coast, and so a com- 
mittee of correspondence was appointed by 
the Board. One of our trustees was goino; 
East at that time, and he was requested to 
visit the centers of population and see what 
could be done. Suffice it to say, that after 
much correspondence with various parties, 
the Bishop took the matter in his own hands 



56 HISTORICAL SKETCH. 

and sent us one whom we had no previous 
thought of. And so at the Conference of 
1866, Rev. Dr. Cox was announced as our 
pastor. He met with a warm reception on 
the part of the church, and was awarded a 
larger salary than any man who had pre- 
viously served this people. He entered 
upon his labors with much vigor, and pros- 
ecuted them with great industry and suc- 
cess. His prayer meetings soon became 
the rallying point of Israel's hosts, and the 
lecture-room was thronged to its utmost 
capacity at every weekly meeting. He re- 
mained in the charge three years, and dur- 
ing that time increased the membership 
largely, added the basement to the parson- 
age, paid the entire debt that existed when 
he came, both funded and floating, frescoed 
the walls of the auditorium, and filled the 
windows with stained glass, so dark that 
one on entering the edifice imagines it more 
a Mausoleum than a Christian temple, 
where the light of the living God is shin- 
ing. 

In 1869 Dr. Cox was succeeded by Rev. 
L. Walker, a young man of brilliant parts, so 
far as his intellectual status was concerned. 
He continued to do efficient service in the 
charge for two years and a half, when he 



HISTORICAL SKETCH. bt 

was turned aside from his appropriate work 
by his love for fast horses and financial 
speculations, and so was his power for use- 
fulness blasted and his ministerial life made 
a wreck. His stranded bark lies beached 
on the sands of time, a fearful warning to 
those who would come down from the lofty 
pinnacle of the Christian ministry to toy 
with the world's baubles. During the last 
half of the third year of Mr. Walker's 
term we were again left without a pastor. 
The working force of the church, however, 
had now gained such completeness of dis- 
cipline and such strength of labor that no 
material damage came of the deprivation. 
The tribes of our Israel went on with the 
battle against sin and her cohorts, with 
only the Lion of the tribe of Judah as our 
leader, and the Lord of hosts was with us, 
and the God of Jacob was our refuge. 
Prayer and class meetings were well at- 
tended, and the people grew mightily in 
the fellowship of the Spirit and the com- 
fort of the Holy Ghost. The Word was 
preached by invited guests, and so the pul- 
pit was made attractive by variety. Mean- 
while, our former pastor, Rev. Dr. Peck, 
who had now become one of the Bishops 
of the church, was looking sharply for a 



58 HISTORICAL SKETCH. 

man who should be fully furnished in all 
respects to be an ensample to the flock. 
He was stimulated in this service, not mere- 
ly by an impulse to do his duty as a general 
superintendent of the church, but by the 
great special love he bore this people. He 
was, therefore, the more intensely solicitous 
that no mistake be made in the selection 
that had been confided to his hands. 

We trusted him and were not disappoint- 
ed, for at the Conference of 1872 Rev. Frank 
F. Jewell was announced as the chosen lead- 
er. He came to us in the vig-or of robust 
physical health, and in the fullness of the gos- 
pel of peace. At once all the appliances of 
the church felt the spring of a new enthusi- 
asm, and all departments of our Zion bounded 
into more intense activity. Crowds began 
to throng our aisles, and sacred fire burned 
upon our altars. The three years of his 
sojourn were years of ever-increasing pros- 
perity to this Zion, wherein both the ma- 
terial and spiritual interests of the church 
were wondrously advanced. Ten thousand 
dollars' worth of improvements had been 
added to the property in a new organ-loft, 
and certain changes in basement and Sun, 
day-school room. This amount, together 
with the previously accrued debt of $4- 



HISTORICAL SKETCH. 59 

000, made us again in need of 114,000. 
The whole amount was generously sub- 
scribed, but for the want of sufficient vigor 
on the part of the collectors, some of it re- 
mained unpaid, and so about $3,500 debt 
was carried over to the next pastorate. 
Dr. Jewell left the charge under a full tide 
of prosperity, his congregations filling every 
nook and cranny of this spacious auditorium 
even up to the hour of his departure. 

The Rev. Thomas Guard came to us in 
1875. Lono; before his arrival his s^reat 
reputation as a pulpit orator had reached 
us, and public expectation was on the qui 
vive. He had previously occupied the 
pulpit of the finest church in American 
Methodism, and his fame was in all 
thoughts and on every tongue. We need 
not deny that we, as a people, felt some 
vainglory in having such a star — nay, such 
a sun to shed its refulgence athwart our 
way. We were not a little surprised when 
he came, to find him the simple, childlike 
man that he was, for his was a nature of 
the finest sensibility and most guileless 
character. Like a nicely attuned instru- 
ment is adjusted to the most exquisite har- 
mony, so every fiber of his being thrilled 
and teemed with eloquence. And then 



60 HISTORICAL SKETCH. 

this was not so much the eloquence of rosy 
words as the beautiful and forceful expres- 
sion of most massive and sublime thoughts. 
But Dr. Guard lived in too high a sphere, 
moved in too vast a mental and spiritual 
realm, to be thoroughly appreciated by this 
sordid, muckrake-loving world. His was 
not, therefore, a ministry of every-day 
practical life, but was one of great ideal 
beauty to those who could follow him in 
his flights of fancy, or linger with him on 
those supernal cliffs whither his peerless 
imagination continually soared. And so 
during the three years of his ministry, the 
people were instructed and delighted rath- 
er than that the material interests of the 
charge were advanced. Money was too 
material for such an administration, and 
yet money was a desideratum, and had to 
come, if not from legitimate resources, still 
come it must even from the Shylock's coffers. 
So this edifice was again mortgaged, and 
we were again within the iron grip of the 
interest-gatherers. 

The Conference of 1878 sent back the 
first pastor again, and Kev. M. C. Briggs, 
D. D., was once more installed. When he 
taught us the way of life some twenty-six 
years before, he was only plain Brother 



HISTORICAL SKETCH. 61 

Briggs, as Doctors of Divinity were un- 
known to California Methodism then. But 
now the D. D. came with him, and we 
stood in awe of it, but we soon learned 
how little titles affect character, after all, 
and were not long in realizing that the same 
Brother Briggs of other years was here— 
here to preach the same old gospel of the 
grace of God, here to tell the old, old story 
of redeeming love, here to pray and sing 
and shout and crowd on the column of the 
Lord's advancing host. His three years 
were years of incessant labor and vigorous 
toil. Well done will the Master say when 
the reckoning comes. 

Brother Jewell was returned to us in 
1881. The first year of his present term 
resulted in a great ingathering; f souls 

o o o 

through the assistance of that wonderfully 
efficient evangelist, Rev. Thomas Harrison, 
and the refurnishing and replenishing of 
the church throughout, at an expenditure 
of some $ 3,000 ; all of which was paid 
when the work was done. This second year 
of his administration has canceled the en- 
tire debt of the church, and we are once 
more free from the death-grip of the mort- 
gage. We surely have cause for gratitude, 
and do rejoice most heartily that our year 
of jubilee has fully come. 



62 HISTORICAL SKETCH. 

And now, had we such power of discern- 
ment as would enable us to look back along 
the track of all these years, and gather up 
the results of all this labor; could we take 
in the good that has been done and the evil 
that has been prevented ; could we see 
the tide of life that has been invoked and 
the torrent of death that has been stayed ; 
could we realize the number of hearts that 
have been comforted, the number of bright- 
est hopes that have been inspired, the num- 
ber of straying feet that have been turned 
from the broad to the narrow way ; could 
we know the extent and power of influence 
that has been exerted on the public senti- 
ment of this community during all these 
years of strange and stirring history — we 
would then be thoroughly furnished with 
factors sufficient to solve the problem, 
whether this labor has been in vain, and 
whether the organization of this society 
was not an event of the most stupendous 
magnitude. Nay, more : could we look out 
on the on-coming ages, and behold the 
future of this church in the scope of its 
evangelizing movements along all those re- 
volving cycles, until the millennium shall 
dawn ; could we see the trophies it shall 
win, the laurels it shall bind on Imman- 



HISTORICAL SKETCH. 63 

uel's brow, the victory on victory that 
shall be inscribed on its banner as it floats 
grandly in the midst of all moral conflicts — 
yea, could we go further and push our 
raptured gaze beyond the confines of time 
into the vast mysteries of eternity ; could 
we look into the holy city where the many 
mansions be, and where the white-robed 
throng is before the throne : could we listen 
to the harpers harp and the chanters chant; 
could we gaze on the bespangled multitude 
which no man can number, and behold 
among those shining ranks those who have 
gone up from our midst, and who were our 
companions in labor and sacrifice ; could 
we see hundreds upon hundreds who were 
converted at our altars, and sanctified in the 
midst of our solemn feasts; could we be- 
hold them there so free from sin, so filled 
with rapturous delight, so safe forevermore 
in the presence of him who redeemed them 
and made them joint-heirs with himself to 
the inheritance of the skies — we would then 
have some faint idea of the grandeur of our 
investment and the magnificent outcome 
of our toil. Nor would we fail to realize 
the immensity of that glorious sea of results 
which began in the trickling rill of 1851, 
and, thrilled by the rapturous vision, in the 



64 HISTORICAL SKETCH. 

fullness of our joy would we exclaim, 
" Halleluiah, for the Lord God has done 
wonderful things for our Zion." 




SENECA JONES. 
First Superintendent Sunday School. 



PASTORAL REMINISCENCES- 



A vast congregation assembled at the 
church in the evening to continue the Jubi- 
lee services. The interest was intense and 
the services extremely entertaining, as sev- 
eral former pastors were present, who 
would convey to the audience something of 
the days of Auld Lang Syne. First 
among these was introduced the Rev. D. 
A. Dry den, who said : 

My pastorate in connection with this 
church, over a quarter of a century ago, 
when it was known as the Folsom St. 
Church, was a brief one. I shall claim the 
privilege of making my remarks correspond- 
ingly brief. The inner-heart history of 
this church during that time will never be 
written. It was anvthing but a time of 
iubilee. It was a struggle for life rather 
than a time of triumph ; there was more of 
Gethsemane than of the Mount of Trans- 
figuration. Like individuals, churches have 
their birth, childhood, and maturer growth. 
Like individuals, some are born healthy 



66 PASTORAL REMINISCENCES. 

and strong, with all the potencies of a rap- 
id, vigorous growth, and sturdy maturity, 
and favored with all the conditions of such 
growth. Such Folsom St. Church was not. 
It was born feeble — some thought prema- 
turely — had a sickly childhood, environed 
by adverse conditions which often threaten- 
ed to cut short its career. During the 
year 1855 was perhaps the severest strug- 
gle for life, at least it was severe enough. 
Congregations were very small, member- 
ship few, rather poor. Income from every 
available source sadly below even the most 
rigidly economical expenses ; crushed down 
under a heavy debt, with constantly accumu- 
lating interest. The heart struggles of pastor 
and a few noble souls are known only to the 
Good Master. Surely there were no visible 
signs then of the powerful manhood into 
which the feeble child has orown. And 
who knoweth to what extent, under the 
brooding providence of God, the baptism 
of these days of trial may have con- 
tributed to this growth ? Not always in 
prosperity does life take its deepest roots, 
either in the church or the individual. 

In looking back, even from this night of 
jubilee, I can realize it was n privilege to 
have had a share in those adversities, per- 



PASTORAL REMINISCENCES. 67 

haps realize it more now than then ; for in 
truth the old Adam in me did not so much 
consider it a privilege then. 

In one important respect this church has 
been specially blessed. During all its 
years of feebleness and struggle it has had 
nursinof fathers and mothers who have nev- 
er despaired or abandoned their child. Such 
was John D. Blain, whose memory is fresh 
with all of us to-day. As Presiding Elder 
at that time, 1 do remember well how I 
was nerved to new endeavor by the magic 
power of his cheerful courage, and unflag- 
ging zeal and energy. For every desperate 
extremity he seemed to evolve some new 
expedient. But I believe that, under God, 
the church owes its continued existence and 
growth to present robust maturity to the 
persistent faith and persevering endeavor 
of a few noble men and women, some of 
whom I could name. A venerable few are 
here to-night, who have stood by their 
church through all its vicissitudes from the 
cradle to its present prosperous surround- 
ings: surely they have a right to a full cup 
of rejoicing in this jubilee. Others, too, I 
could name who are not here in bodily 
presence. They have passed over and en- 
tered the New Jerusalem. But I have felt 



68 PASTORAL REMINISCENCES. 

to-day that they could turn aside a little, 
even from the glories of the church tri- 
umphant, to be present in spirit with us 
here. 

Rev. W. S. Urmy said : 

It is very gratifying to meet with you 
on this happy occasion, and I sincerely con- 
gratulate you on being free from the heavy 
burden which, as a church, you have been 
so long bearing. It was my pleasure to 
serve some of you, with others who have 
gone joyously on before to the better land, 
many years ago, and the memories of those 
days are full of interest; but as the time is 
limited, it will be possible to mention but a 
few of the facts and incidents of my too 
short pastorate over this society. 

I arrived in California on the 16th of 
August, 1853 — nearly thirty years ago, and 
the first service I attended in San Francisco 
was held in Music Hall on Bush street near 
Montgomery — the temporary home at that 
time of this congregation. The sermon 
was by Bro. N. P. Heath, who was then 
serving his first term with you. I remem- 
ber a little after attending a Sunday school 
held in a school-house, in what was then 
called Happy Valley, the school-house be- 
ing then somewhere near what is now the 



PASTORAL REMINISCENCES. 69 

corner of Mission and Second streets. This 
visit was in company with Bro. AV. H. Cod- 
dington, who was then, I think, superin- 
tendent, and who afterward served in that 
capacity with much acceptability and suc- 
cess during my pastorate, and for many 
years besides. 

I joined the Conference in February, 1854, 
and was first appointed to Coloma, where 
gold was first discovered ; then to Columbia 
and Sonora, in company with J. W. Brier ; 
then to lone, and in 1856 to Alameda, with 
Bro. Clias. H. Northup as my colleague. 
While preaching there the work was divid- 
ed, Bro. Northup taking the southern part 
of the work, leaving me to fill Alameda and 
Clinton, or what is now East Oakland. At 
that time Bro. D. Deal was at the Bethel ; 
his brother, Dr. TV. Grove Deal being in 
charge of the school at Alameda. Bro. 
Deal wished that I should be changed from 
Alameda to the Bethel, so that he might 
fill Alameda and thus assist in the school. 
But Bro. Blain, who was then Presiding 
Elder, wished to place me at Folsom street; 
Bro. Heath, who was filling his second term 
in this charge, having become discouraged 
and intending to leave. 

One Monday morning, in March, 1857, 



70 PASTORAL REMINISCENCES. 

there were a number of preachers in the 
Advocate office, which was then on Clay 
street. Bro. Deal was ur^inor Bro. Blain 
to place me at the Bethel, and Bro. Blain 
objected to this, and said : " I want you to 
go to Folsom street." I think I said, 
" Well," and thus my appointment was 
fixed, and on the next week I went to work. 

The members of the church were much 
discouraged ; though the debt, which was 
much more burdensome than the one you 
have just so wisely paid, had been removed 
by aid of a large missionary appropriation. 
There was a proposition really entertained 
to sell the church for school purposes and 
disband ; but we tried to look on the bright 
side of things and build up the cause, and 
the members taking hold with a will, we 
were soon out of the trough of the sea, 
and then had plain and pleasant sailing. 

Some thought I was quite a young man 
to be placed in so responsible a position, 
and good Bro. Burns, of Powell Street 
Church, said to me one morning, at Allen 
& Spier's store, in a joking manner, " Go 
ahead now, Bro. Urmy, and beat Dr. Scott." 
The sarcasm of the remark received point 
from the fact that the Doctor was then at 
the height of his fame as pastor of Calvary 



PASTORAL REMINISCENCES. 71 

Church, then situated on Bush street, just 
below Montgomery. 

The prayer-meetings increased in interest 
and in the number attending, and from thir- 
teen, which we thought a good number, 
we soon went up to thirty or more. The 
class-meetings also became seasons of great 
spiritual profit, and it was necessary to 
have three or four where before one an- 
swered. 

At one of the prayer-meetings an inci- 
dent occurred of rather a startling nature. 
Bro. McPhun, who then lived on First 
street, had come to the meeting with his 
wife, leaving the children at home, the resi- 
dence being back of a small store which they 
then kept. When the meeting was about 
half through the door opened, and Bro. 
McPhun, turning round, started up in af- 
fright, and making the exclamation, "Holy 
Mother," commenced to walk over the pews 
back of him. I looked toward the door, 
and saw a child coming in crying, and with 
its night dress all covered with blood. The 
meeting suddenly closed. It seems the 
children had supposed some one was about 
enterino; the house, and o-oino; to the front 
door had found it locked. In endeavoring 
to break through the window this one had 
cut itself quite badly, though not fatally. 



72 PASTORAL REMINISCENCES. 

Member after member now joined and 
some were soundly converted, among them 
Bros. Nelson and Peterson. The Sunday 
school increased in size and interest ; im- 
provements were made, a brick wall being 
built in front of the lot and a sidewalk laid. 
The exterior of the building was painted, 
and the interior whitened ; and from that 
time, for several reasons, the prosperity of 
the charge was insured ; the principal fac- 
tor in the success being the firmness and 
persistence of the members, the living part 
of whom it may not be permissible for me to 
personally refer to, but it will not be out of 
place for me to mention Sammis and Beards- 
ley and Howard and Sisters Augusta Town- 
send and Stringer, and others of precious 
memory, who so nobly toiled and paid and 
attended with right royal perseverance, un- 
til a success was assured which we are now 
enjoying the results of, and the future out- 
come of which no man can imagine. 

Capt. Charles Goodall said : 

When this church was built there were 
in a very marked degree four characteristics 
shown in a single individual, viz. : piety, 
tvisdom, energy, and perseverance. The 
individual possessing these four desirable 
qualifications for such a work was the Rev. 
J. D. Blain. 



PASTORAL REMINISCENCES. 73 

The first — piety — meaning obedient love 
of the will of God, and zealous devotion to 
his service. 

If I am any judge, after knowing a man 
intimately in sunshine and storm, in sickness 
and health, in prosperity and adversity, 
as I did know Brother Blain, he was en- 
tirely devoted to whatever he thought was 
the will of his Maker ; and no matter what 
it cost him if he saw it was his duty, he was 
sure to do it. 

The second — wisdom — which we under- 
stand to be the use of the best means to 
attain the best ends. This was shown in 
his management of the business of disposing 
of the old property and securing the new. 

Third — energy — the capacity and will to 
pursue in a strong and vigorous manner 
whatever his duty called him to. 

He was strong and vigorous, both in body 
and mind, and full of the resources of good 
health, common sense, keen and clear of 
intellect, a true embodiment of a Christian, 
and every inch a man. 

Fourth — perseverance — continued pur- 
suit or prosecution of any business or enter- 
prise begun. 

After the decision of himself and officiary, 
he left no stone unturned. 

4 



74 PASTORAL REMINISCENCES. 

Going from house to house, merchant to 
merchant, business man to business man, 
mechanic to mechanic, and all trades, avoca- 
tions and callings that could be reached. 
Rebuffs abashed him not ; he would be 
heard, and generally accomplished his ob- 
ject. 

He thought it was just as much serving 
God and preaching, with the plan of the 
church in his hand and arguing for a sub- 
scription, as it was to be in the pulpit with 
the Bible before him explaining and eluci- 
dating the scriptures. 

It enabled him to make personal applica- 
tion to individuals, which was his strong 
forte. He would not be put off ; where 
others would be bluifed off in dismay, he 
would come off triumphant with a subscrip- 
tion. 

Besides these virtues that characterized 
the Pastor, there were in the official Board 
and membership, a faith in the result, and a 
unity of action that was begotten thereby, 
and that was a harbinger of final triumph. 

Tug of war — up guards, and at them. 

It is said, separate the atoms which make 
the hammer, and each would fall on the 
stone as a snowflake ; weld it together, and 
wielded by the firm arm of the quarry man, 
it will break the massive rocks asunder. 



PASTORAL REMINISCENCES. 75 

Divide the waters of Niagara into distinct 
and individual drops, and they will be no 
more than the falling rain : but in their 
united body they would quench the fires of 
Versuvius, and have some to spare for the 
volcanos of other mountains. 

But he has gone and they have gone. 
The strong and manly bodies of Blain, 
Sammis, Howard, Harlow, Beardsley, Gaw- 
ley, and Sprague, of them that helped to 
build up this edifice, are no more on earth ; 
they have gone, as have also Peck and 
Guard, the learned and eloquent preachers 
whose efforts we shall always remember. 
Six trustees and three preachers have gone 
to join the innumerable company which no 
man can number; they have washed their 
robes and made them white in the blood of 
the Lamb. 

To-day they see and know what we are 
doing; they join in joyous jubilee as we 
raise it here ; it is answered and echoed in 
heaven; we cannot hear their voices (except 
in memory), but they can hear ours. If we 
live and die as they did (and I have faith to 
think we shall), we shall join with them. 

"We shall meet, we shall sing, we shall reign 
In the land where the saved never die ; 
We shall rest free from sorrow and pain 
With them in the sweet bye and bye." 



76 PASTORAL REMINISCENCES. 

Rev. J. A. Bruner said : 

I remember that on a certain Thursday 
night, October, 1858, with wife and chil- 
dren, landing from the Sacramento steam- 
er, we were met by representative men of 
the charge, Win. H. Coddington, R. Mc- 
Elroy, and Capt. Charles Goodall, who for 
three successive nights had been awaiting 
our arrival at the wharf. We were hospit- 
ably entertained at the home of Capt. 
Goodall until the parsonage was ready for 
occupancy. 

Though strangers to all, our reception 
was hearty, and our intercourse with the 
society and congregation cordial without 
exception during our stay. 

Entering into the labors of my faithful 
predecessor, Rev. VV. S. Urmy, I found an 
appreciative people prepared of the Lord. 

Our official meetings were earnest, broth- 
erly, harmonious : no overshadowing power 
dictating the regimen : we all strove togeth- 
er in love. 

Every man was loyal to the interests of 
the charge, ready to do, willing to work 
and to contribute. 

A noticable feature of the society was its 
social atmosphere, more apt to be found in 
small churches, where each and all may 



PASTORAL REMINISCENCES. 77 

have recognition and brotherly attention ; 
where equality largely prevails, and a com- 
mon interest unites hearts and hands in 
earnest church work. 

My new little study in the rear of the 
church, a part of the parsonage, was com- 
fortable, quiet, shut in from the bustle and 
noise of the city. It also accommodated 
business meetings and class services, which 
were earnest, spiritual, and well sustained. 

From a brief journal kept at the time, 
I am able to sketch some of the facts of 
spiritual life and progress at that time. 

Dec. 15th, 1858. At our Wednesday 
night prayer meeting, towards its close, 

Hiram R an interesting young man, 

came unsolicited, and kneeling at the altar 
gave God his heart, and became a new crea- 
ture in Christ Jesus. 

The following Sunday this young man 
spoke excellently in class, saying : " This 
Sabbath is worth more to me than all the 
days of my past life." 

Jan. 19th, 1859. God has, in answer to 
prayer, begun a gracious work in my 
charge. The society is striving after a 
closer walk with God. 

Last week a young man entered into 
perfect love. This week a sister who had 



78 PASTORAL REMINISCENCES. 

lost the blessing of purity many years ago 
in Maine, had it restored. She seems the 
most active member of the charge. 

Every evening professors and penitents 
kneel at the altar for pardon or purity. 
Last night two men found Jesus, and pub- 
licly acknowledged the gift of God. One 
of them is our organist. May the gracious 
work deepen and extend. 

Jan. 23rd, Sunday morning. On Thurs- 
day and Friday evenings, from ten to thir- 
teen presented themselves as seekers of 
pardon. Satan strove hard to baffle, but 
both evenings the Lord saved souls. Some 
six or eight have found peace. 

Jan. 24th, Monday. Yesterday my faith 
claimed the promises in behalf of God's 
work in our midst, and it was honored. 

Jan. 28th. At no time since coming to 
the State have I felt such yearnings for 
sinners. Yesterday my heart was much 
drawn out in prayer and tender regard for 
souls. 

Last night, after a short sermon hy Bro. 
Thomas, a filled altar attested the fact of a 
deepening and widening of the work. 

Jan. 29th. To-night Dr. Peck preached 
to a large audience, the altar was filled, 
several found peace, and six offered for pro- 
bation. 



PASTORAL REMINISCENCES. 79 

Jan. 30th. This morning I was enabled 
to press the subject of a present salvation. 
After sermon Bro. E. Thomas consecrated 
the elements for and assisted in our first 
monthly communion. Some who lately 
found the Savior were deeply affected. 

In the afternoon at the Sunday School, 
before the opening prayer, I asked "how 
many children and youth desire remem- 
brance in prayer?" A number of young 
ladies and many of the children rose. 
Twenty adults were present in my Bible 
Class, some of whom were lately converted. 

Wednesday and Friday, 9th and 11th 
Feb., were observed as days of fasting and 
prayer for extension of the work. 

Sunday, 13th Feb., baptised four young 
men, and received four young men into full 
membership. 

At close of sermon the whole congrega- 
tion knelt in silent prayer. 

Bro. E. McElroy then concluded with 
appropriate petitions. 

The presiding Elder, Rev. M. C. Briggs, 
called with me to see our well attended 
Sunday school. At close of evening service 
all except two persons remained for the 
prayer meeting. 

Feb. 19th, Saturday afternoon, forty per- 



80 PASTORAL REMINISCENCES. 

sons present at 2 o'clock, to hear Bro. 
Briggs' first sermon at our second quarterly 
meeting. 

The next morning at 9 o'clock held Love- 
feast. The scene was thrilling, in part from 
the number of nationalities represented in a 
company of perhaps less than one hundred. 

The story of salvation was told, not only 
by Americans, but subjects of the British 
crown from the Provinces, from London, 
various parts of Great Britain ; men from 
Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark ; the 
Russian from St. Petersburg ; the darker 
Spaniard from Malaga, each and all spoke 
the language of Canaan and rejoiced to- 
gether in Christ Jesus. The oceasion will 
never be forgotten. Some of those who tes- 
tified that day to the power of saving grace 
have long since passed to their heavenly 
home. Among the number, Capt. Daniel S. 
Howard, who gave his heart to God in our 
midst during the revival, was a power for 
good in every department of the church ; a 
burning and shining light, until years after- 
ward he was suddenly called to his heavenly 
rest. 

So also, the venerable Cady, who so 
heartily embraced the great salvation, and 
as a patriarch exemplifying the spirit of his 



PASTORAL REMINISCENCES. 81 

divine Master, until several years since he 
was not, for God took him. 

The following entry in my journal indi- 
cates the progress and results of the work 
up to that date : 

Feb. 25th. Six weeks since I began a 
series of meetings in my charge which have 
continued every evening until the present. 

About 20 persons or upwards have pro- 
fessed conversion, the principle part of 
whom within the first two weeks. Also, 
some 12 or 14 joined by letter, which in- 
creased the society of Folsom street charge 
from 70 to 100 or more. The Sunday 
school has also doubled. 

I have said that the charge were ready 
and willing workers. The benefactions of 
the church were all represented at the close 
of the year. 

On Sunday morning, July 31st, after a 
sermon by Bishop Baker, in less than 15 
minutes we raised $600 — beingp in full of all 
indebtedness for parsonage, improvements, 
etc. 

The following contains the last mem- 
oranda from my journal of that year: 

Aug. 7, 1859. Held our fourth quarterly 
meeting. Kev. M. C. Briggs preached 
morning and evening, and administered the 
Lord's Supper. 



82 PASTORAL REMINISCENCES. 

During the year not one of our number 
have died; no one been expelled ; no church 
trial; no complaint ; no appeal. The Lord 
be praised ! 

Such is, in brief, a sketch of my happy 
twelve months' pastorate with this loving 
people ; at the close of which against their 
earnest protest I felt it duty, for the sake 
of the health of my family, to occupy a new 
field of labor. How swiftly those years 
have sped away ! Though a goodly pro- 
portion of the old Folsom street member- 
ship continue, a new generation has grown 
up around them ; another house of worship, 
spacious, commodious, contains the largely 
increased society and congregation ; hun- 
dreds of new Sunday school scholars attend 
the exercises of faithful teachers, and join 
in glad hosannas to the Great Head of the 
church. 

Rev. S. D. Simonds said : 

I suppose that in these Jubilee services 
some personal references are expected. In 
common with most ministers and all thought- 
ful men, in all ages, I have deeply pondered 
the question of human responsibility. I 
came early to the conclusion that the uni- 
versal law for each, man or woman, was to 
do all the good which the environments of 



PASTORAL REMINISCENCES. 88 

each rendered possible to be done. To do 
good of every possible sort, both to the 
bodies and souls of men, is the life of re- 
ligion. Without this all piety is pretense ; 
all faith but the faith of devils. 

This sense of responsibility led me to 
the Christian ministry, and as far as possi- 
ble with my surroundings kept me in it to 
the present. The Christian ministry, how- 
ever the declaration may excite surprise in 
the minds of mere naturalists, is the great- 
est source of blessing to the world. Un- 
less the light of spiritual truth and the 
affection of goodness and purity be in the 
mind, there is no power of self-help with 
man. 

It takes a soul 

To move a body. * * * 

It takes the ideal to blow a hair's breath oft 

The dust of the actual. * * * 

Life develops from within. 

I have had the largest sympathy with re- 
formers, so called, but who has not marked 
their distressing failures. Reformers u'en- 
erally have the greatest need to be reform- 
ed. Their shadow goes backward and not 
forward on the dial of progress. 

The fact is, nothing in this world grows 
except from seed. And the seed of human 



84 PASTORAL REMINISCENCES. 

growth is the word made flesh, then glori- 
fied, or made spirit and life. That word 
preached unto men brings divine light and 
divine love into the human soul as an orga- 
nizing force, and renders all progress possi- 
ble, and great progress in civilization cer- 
tain. Soon the German nation will celebrate 
the four-hundredth anniversary of the birth- 
day of Martin Luther. Well and nobly 
should it be done ; for Martin Luther gave 
them the Bible in German, which has done 
more for the nation than all her needle and 
Krupp guns. And its light is but just 
dawning. It will go on blessing the land 
while time shall last. Similar has been the 
power of the English Bible to advance and 
bless the English and American peoples. 
The word is the cloud by day and the pillar 
of fire by night by which the modern Israel 
of all humanity journeys to a glorious Ca- 
naan of a perfect civilization, and each obe- 
dient soul comes to glory. The negations 
of unbelief and the dark tyrannies of ser- 
vice are but eddies in the stream, and parts 
of the onward movement before it is under- 
stood. 

It was my most earnest effort for years 
to promote the spiritual life of the people. 
I never speculated. I never lost myself 



PASTORAL REMINISCENCES. 85 

in forms. I tried to avoid beating the air 
with common-place expression. If I was 
not understood by others — for rarely is ad- 
vancing thought accepted at once — I under- 
stood myself to herald forth the light of the 
new day on which I felt the world had en- 
tered. And yet it was the Old World in- 
terpreted by the demonstrations of experi- 
ence, and in the light of that spirit which 
was promised to guide into all truth. If 
the Lord Jesus said more than eighteen 
hundred years ago, "I have many things 
to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them 
now," was it not time to walk in the light 
of the Holy Comforter, even the Spirit of 
truth ? 

Let your minds glance over the two 
great dispensations, the Mosaic and the 
Christian : the first, intensely external and 
natural ; the second, natural with inspira- 
tions of the Spirit. Both equally divine, 
but one of law, the other of grace and 
truth. Walk along the track of history to 
the eighteenth century. Has the Kingdom 
of God come? The churches, whether 
Greek, Roman or Protestant, are altogether 
external ; no more the Kingdom of God 
than the Empire of Charlemagne, Charles 
V. or Napoleon I. The prophetic periods 



86 PASTORAL REMINISCENCES. 

are closed. No man carefully governed by 
Scripture can carry the prophetic periods 
beyond 1830, if he can later than 1750. 
After thirteen years of very intense and 
careful study of prophecy, I could find no 
point below 1730, or thereabout. I was 
utterly at sea, and could not accept the 
theories that brought the world to an end 
in 1843. It ought to have ended be- 
fore. 

But let us look at God's commentary in 
Providence on his word. In 1729, Mr. 
Wesley organized his societies. It was not 
the first perception of a spiritual kingdom. 
The United Brethren and the Quakers ex- 
isted already. But it was the clearest, 
simplest, and most powerful organization 
for spiritual truth that the world had seen. 
And the doctrine of the witness of the Spir- 
it to the word of God was clearly announc- 
ed. 

Such a phenomenon I call a new dispensa- 
tion of Christian truth and life. If the 
dogmas of the sixteenth century have been 
foisted upon it ; if the ecclesiasticisms of 
the middle ages have laid their hands upon 
it in any degree ; they no more belong to it 
than the Judaism of the old Pharisees be- 
longs to Christianity. Methodism must 



PASTORAL REMINISCENCES. 87 

cast them off, or God will raise another 
people to take her crown. Her mission is 
to hold forth God's written word, and pro- 
claim the demonstration of its truth in the 
hearts and lives of believers, a living 
faith a living, supernatural (higher nature) 
religion, the kingdom of God in men, which 
though small in its beginnings, will advance 
more and more forever. We are but in the 
dawn of the spiritual church, where the 
Lord Jesus is the all in all. I sought to pro- 
mote, as far as I was able, while pastor of 
this church, the spiritual life of the people. 
I made no effort to preach eloquent or 
learned sermons ; but I love eloquence and 
learning, and honor them every where ; 
but I was so intent on the spirit of regener- 
ation among men, that I had no time to pol- 
ish periods, or shape the climax with decla- 
mation. It was to make Christ known as 
the resurrection and the life, that filled the 
measure of my ambition. I felt that if I 
could plant spirituality in the people, it 
would be the greatest good to them, and 
the greatest good to the world, and lay the 
broadest foundation for the prosperity of 
the church. I hope it is not with any van- 
ity in my heart that I survey the past, in 
the confident belief that to the spiritual life 



88 PASTORAL REMINISCENCES. 

then infused into the people, this church 
owes more of its prosperity than to any man 
or set of men. Such prosperity is not my 
honor. It is the honor of God, to whom be 
all glory forever — Amen. 



PEN PICTURES 



BY ROBERT MC ELROY. 



HAD RESPECT UNTO THE RECOMPENSE. 

One evening, in the early part of 1862, a 
young man came into our prayer meeting 
and took a seat near the altar. His per- 
sonal appearance was prepossessing and his 
manner exceedingly devout. His face 
beamed with a heavenly radiancy, and his 
eye sparkled with the fire of pure devotion. 
His voice was clear and ringing, and when 
engaged in prayer, exhortation or song, 
seemed to melt all present into the most ex- 
quisite tenderness. He talked so eloquently 
of the love of Jesus ; he pleaded so prevail- 
ingly at the throne of grace : he sung, O ! 
how sweetly, of that home where the glori- 
fied rest from life's weary toil. All eyes 
were upon him and all hearts were stirred 
to their profoundest depths by the magic of 
his manner and the exceeding sweetness 
of his religious exercises. Wonder who he 



90 PEN PICTURES. 

is and whence he came? Such was the 
curious inquiry which came leaping from 
all lips, and yet none seemed able to answer 
the inquiry or satisfy the curiosity. There 
he was, stranger to all, and yet all hearts 
thrilling under the pathos and power of his 
devotions. Like the risen Christ when 
walking with his disciples by the way un- 
heralded and unknown, and yet producing 
the most exquisite sensations of pleasurable 
emotion by his gracious words* He drifted 
away from that evening meeting as silently 
and unknown as he came, and yet he had 
left the impress of his sweet spirit and in- 
tense fervor. Next was he seen in the 
Sunday morning congregation, when he 
presented his church letter from one of the 
New York pastors, and thus became identi- 
fied with us in church labor. 

We look at this mans career and trace 
his short life's history in its many vicissi- 
tudes with the most intense interest, as it 
reveals to us such stupendous value of ad- 
hering to principle, no matter where such 
adherence leads or whatsoever sacrifice it in- 
volves. Precious indeed, in all ages of the 
church, have been the exhibitions of 
Christian steadfastness under the severest 
tests. Job's integrity, Daniel's faithfulness, 



PEN PICTURES. 91 

and the Hebrew children's devotion shine 
out as the sparkle of the pure diamond, and 
beautifully illustrate how little does the de- 
vout heart care for the glitter of earthly 
emolument when offered for the sacrifice of 
stern Christian principle. And so did the 
conduct of this young man sparkle with in- 
tensest luster when the test came ; for come 
it did with terrible severity not long after 
he reached this city. 

In that day of California history the pop- 
ular idea in all parts of the world seemed 
to be that if the impecunious could only 
reach our golden shores, they would want 
no more, as golden streams were constantly 
running down our streets in such swift and 
overflowing current that none need 2^0 un- 
supplied ; and so many under this delusion 
left their homes with only money enough to 
bring them here. Upon their arrival, how- 
ever, the hallucination vanished, and they 
found themselves in a strange land where 
life's necessities could not be secured with- 
out large expenditure of solid coin. It was 
not remarkable, under these circumstances, 
that much suffering was endured and much 
want and privation experienced. Nor was 
it strange that the labor market was over- 
stocked, insomuch that men were found by 



92 PEN PICTURES. 

thousands who could not obtain remun- 
erative employment. Such was the state of 
things when this young man found his home 
among us, and he, having a wife to support 
and not much money to meet their ever re- 
curring wants, was extremely anxious to 
obtain employment. Many a day did he 
plod the streets, weary and disheartened, 
in search of some mode of honestly earning 
the necessary means of support. Although 
gifted with business talent of no mean order, 
yet the opportunity to put that talent to 
useful service did not occur till his money 
was about gone, and his courage had well 
nigh failed. And then that opportunity 
came only in the form of most severe temp- 
tation. He was offered a fine situation 
where the pay was large and the work not 
over exhaustive ; but with it was coupled 
the necessity of violating God's command- 
ment in the desecration of his holy day. 
None could acceptably fill the situation un- 
less he worked on the Sabbath, and without 
consenting to do this the situation was not 
at his command. What should he do — al- 
low his wife and himself to starve or accept 
the tempting offer ? On the one hand was 
comfort and plenty, on the other penury and 
want. On the one hand was independent 



PEN PICTURES. 93 

self-support, while on the other was only 
suppliant beggary. Not much time would 
be required to determine the question in the 
case of one less grounded in moral principle, 
or firmly rooted in his attachment to relig- 
ious duty. But this young man had dwelt 
too long in the secret place with the Most 
High : he had communed too deeply with 
the Master, and been too fully baptized 
with His Spirit to hesitate for a momemt in 
rejecting the demoralizing proffer. He 
could suffer the pangs of hunger longer if 
need be ; he could waste in flesh and pine 
in spirit ; he could wander about these 
streets in quest of honest toil, till, foot-so?^ 
and "weary, he might sink and die ; but to 
disobey God, to deny the blood that bought 
him, to sell his convictions of right for pal- 
try gold, or even for bread to sustain the 
life of her who was dearer far to him than 
the life that beat in his own breast, never! 
Proudly did he exclaim, " God forbid that 
I should do this thing," and so did he tri- 
umph grandly in asserting his manly ad- 
herence to duty and to God. Soon relief 
came, but came in a severe manner. The 
man of God who had the contract for build- 
mg this church gnve him employment in 
haul in £ brick from the wharf to the place 



94 PEN PICTURES. 

where the temple was to be reared. And 
so he went down into the menial service of 
a day laborer, driving a mule and cart 
loaded with brick through these streets, 
rather than take a position for which he 
was better fitted by nature and education, 
in which w r as involved the necessity of vio- 
la ing his conscience by disobeying God. 

Subsequently this man became the first 
superintendent of the Central Sabbath 
school, which institution still bears the 
marks of his wise oversight, and owes much 
of its present prosperity to the strong foun- 
dations for its support which he reared in 
the years long ago. He also was one of the 
first-class leaders of that church, and night 
and day did he labor for its success, till 
consumption's fang fastened upon the deli- 
cate frame of his saintly wife, and made 
their removal from this coast a necessity. 
But the removal did not avert the evil. It 
came on swift wing, and he laid her pre- 
cious remains away to sleep in Jesus till the 
Resurrection morn. Shortly after her de- 
mise he gave himself to the ministry, and 
became a member of an Eastern Confer- 
ence. His race however, was short ; for 
excessive labor and undue exposure brought 
on the disease of which his wife died, and 



PEN PICTURES. 95 

after lingering a few months he went to 
join her in the skies, where they two are 
forever with the Lord. He, no doubt, now 
realizes the extreme wisdom of uncomprom- 
ising fidelity to Christ, in the midst of severe 
temptation to deviate from the strict line of 
religious duty. 

AN IRREPRESSIBLE. 

Sometime in 1858 there appeared at our 
altars, with church letter in hand, a candi- 
date for reception into church fellowship. 
There was much about the man that was 
peculiar, and some things that were special- 
ly striking in his personal appearance and 
personal conduct. In the first place, lie was 
greatly deformed in having no feet. These 
he had lost through exposure in the moun- 
tains ; for they had become so badly frozen 
that amputation was necessary to save life. 
And this had been performed in the rudest 
manner possible, as no skillful surgeon was 
present, when the necessity arose, to per- 
form the painful Operation. Nor had the 
rude operators any delicate or refined in- 
struments at their command with which to 
remove the mortifying members. Coarse 
saws and heavy knives were all the exorcis- 
ing instruments which could be secured in 



96 PEN PICTUEES. 

those mountain fastnesses at that early day ; 
and so these sturdy, untutored mining sur- 
geons used the best tools they had to relieve 
their suffering companion of his decayed 
members. Rude as were the operators, and 
coarse as were the instruments, still the 
work was done in so successful a manner as 
to preserve the life of the patient, and there 
lie stood on his stumps before God's altar, 
pledging eternal fealty to the King of kings 
and Lord of lords. 

But not only was this man singular in 
personal appearance, but he was exceeding- 
ly so in personal conduct, for he had many 
habits which were eccentric to the last de- 
cree. Prominent among; these was the hab- 
it of vociferous shouting. Sudden as the 
lightning's flash, loud as the thunder's 

So " 

deafening roar, and startling as an electric 
shock from a full-charged battery, would 
that irrepressible shout come. When all 
was calm as a summer's eve, with not a 
zephyr of excitement to stir the sensibilities 
of the most susceptible, that shout would 
come — come it would in the most unex- 
pected manner, and at the most unexpected 
time. Come to shock and horrify the 
quivering sensibilities of nervous women ; 
outrage the feelings 



PEN PICTURES. 97 

of sturdy men ; come to offend all sense of 
good taste and all rules of conventional pro- 
priety; and yet come it would, and nothing 
could suppress it. Church censure was in- 
adequate ; Official Board pronunciamentos 
were ineffectual ; public pastoral repri- 
mands had no effect : and so the thing went 
on at all social meetings ; nay more, for 
even on all preaching occasions that irre- 
pressible shout would invariably go off, to 
the extreme discomfort of all present. 

It was not unfrequently amusing in the 
extreme, to witness the effect of these ex- 
plosions on that part of the congregation 
in his immediate vicinity. Everything 
would be going on orderly, and the sermon 
apparently producing a salutary effect on 
the attentive and interested listeners, when, 
sudden as the earthquake's tread, would 
come that awful shout, as shrill and shriek- 
ing as the calliope's most startling scream. 
Then would timid ones spring from their 
seats in frenzied fright, as though pierced 
by an electric shock, and their efforts to re- 
cover their self-possession, after the spasm, 
would give the whole matter such an air of 
the extremely ludicrous as would almost 
convulse the congregation with laughter. 
Of course it needed not many such perform- 



98 PEN PICTURES. 

ances to put an end to all devotion, and 
render that special service of no effect for 
good. The nuisance was finally abated by 
sending the misguided, though no doubt 
really religious, man to his friends in the 
East, where, for all we know, he may be 
still shouting his way to heaven ; as doubt- 
less he regarded this lusty lung exercise as 
indispensable to his getting there. Or per- 
haps the dear man has ceased from his 
earthly toil, and gone into those beatitudes 
the contemplation of which so ravished his 
extremely impressible soul while sojourning 
among us. If so, his discordant notes have 
been changed into sweetest harmony, and 
his shrill, shrieking shout has rounded out 
into the richness of angelic melody. No 
more the nerve-rasping scream of the wild 
bird of this desert world, but from his 
spirit-voice there sounds forth the swelling 
symphony of heavenly music. And the 
Hallelujah comes as softly and as sweetly 
from him now as from any of the white- 
robed choristers in the grand orchestra of 
heaven. So does the putting on of immor- 
tality and the entrance into the glory land 
make all things new. So does it bring har- 
mony out of discord, and freshness and 
beauty from hideous deformity. 



pen pictukes. yy 

LIGHT FROM DARKNESS. 

In the winter of 1866 San Francisco was 
visited by Rev. Mr. Earl, a Baptist Evan- 
gelist, who came to this city in response to 
a call from the Ministerial Union. Of 
course he came to hold union meetings, and 
therefore, his visit was non-denominational, 
but was in the interest of Christianity in 
general, and no church or denomination in 
particular. His meetings were held in 
Piatt's Hall, and were attended by large 
masses of all classes of the community. It 
is enough to say that these meetings were 
wonderfully successful in increasing the 
spirituality of the churches, and in adding 
many hundred new converts to their folds. 
But it seemed both to the pastor and Board 
of Howard St. church a waste of force to 
confine their efforts to the promotion of 
these meetings, inasmuch as not half the 
community could possibly be brought un- 
der their influence, for the want of room. 
Hundreds would be nightly turned away 
from these meetings, from the impossibility 
of wedging themselves into the dense mass 
who had already packed the Hall to suffo- 
cation. And so it was determined to hold 
a series of revival meetings at our own 



100 PEN PICTURES. 

church, so that the overflow might have an 
opportunity to hear the Gospel call, and 
perhaps some would accept its tender plead- 
ing. Not many days elapsed before our al- 
tars were crowded with those who would 
see Jesus, and not a night passed without 
witnessing the conversion of souls. 

One evening as the meeting was in pro- 
gress, and the tide of religious power seem- 
ed to swell to a volume of irresistible pow- 
er, an aged man was seen in the back part 
of the room to leave his seat and approach 
the altar. His hair was white as the driv- 
en snow, but his wardrobe bore evidence of 
long wear and scanty means. Tears were 
streaming from his sunken eyes, and run- 
ning in brooklets down his furrowed cheeks. 
He was a perfect stranger to all present, 
and none knew from whence he came ; but 
all saw at a glance how intensely earnest 
he was after the pearl of great price. His 
whole person was convulsed with intense 
feeling, and his whole being shook and 
throbbed like the leaves of the forest under 
the pressure of a mighty wind. Down on 
his knees he fell, and in the agony of an in- 
tensely felt want, he pleaded for Divine 
mercy, but seemed to plead in vain. Ev- 
ery eye in the vast congregation was upon 



PEN PICTURES. 101 

him, and every Christian heart in the as- 
sembly beat with deepest sympathy for the 
suffering penitent. Prayer the most fer- 
vent, and pleadings the most imploring, 
arose in constant succession from many a 
devout heart in his behalf, but all to no pur- 
pose ; for the intense gloom that pervaded 
his mind seemed impenetrable, and no ray 
of light could pierce the darkness so pro- 
found. And yet his insatiate desire drove 
him onward to a state of desperate, unyield- 
ing determination to find the object of his 
search or die in the attempt before leaving 
the place where he knelt ; and when the 
meeting was formally dismissed, nothing 
could induce him to relinquish the struggle. 
He seemed seized with the conviction that 
if he went from that altar as he came, in his 
sins and in his blood, he would so remain to 
all eternity. This conviction was so deeply 
riveted upon his inmost thought that he 
pleaded in the most piteous tones to be al- 
lowed to remain where he was, that he might 
spend the livelong night in praying for 
Divine mercy. Such importunity the world 
never saw since the days of the Syrophe- 
nician woman. And it seemed another at- 
tempt on the part of Jesus to bring out an- 
other exhibition of that faith which laughs 



102 PEN PICTURES. 

at impossibilities when all around is as dark 
and dense as Egyptain night. 

Two things were apparent in this man's 
pleading. First, his intensely felt want, and 
second, his unwavering faith that the Man 
of Calvary could bring relief to his crushed 
and agonized spirit. And so he held with 
firm and unrelenting grasp the promises of 
God, and reckoned that however great the 
emergency or desperate the situation they 
could not fail. Sublime, indeed, was the 
conflict ! Puny man ; sin cursed and sin 
covered man ; man whose whole life of 
many years had been given faithfully to the 
Evil One ; man with naught to recommend 
him to the Divine favor but his helpless, 
dire necessity ; and yet with sufficient power 
left to lay hold of the Divine promises and 
plead them fully and unyieldingly in the 
Divine presence. How could Christ, the 
sympathizing Christ, the pitying Christ, the 
Christ who laid down his life to redeem man 
and bless him when in just such an emer- 
gency, resist such an antagonist and turn a 
deaf ear to such pleadings ? Impossible ! 
and yet the conflict continued, and the long 
weary hours of the night w r ore away. A 
magic spell bound us to the spot as we knelt 
in the presence of this awfully sublime 



PEN PICTURES. 103 

spectacle, and yet we doubted not the final 
result of this mighty conflict. The delay, 
however, was incomprehensible, for has He 
not said : "Before, they call, I will answer 
them ? " We know not, nor shall we know 
till the revealments of eternity dawn upon 
our vision, the reason of this delay. Nor can 
we comprehend why the tender and sympa- 
thizing Jesus allowed the deep anguish of 
this suffering penitent to continue so long. 
But perhaps it was to furnish us with 
another wrestling Jacob, and show us how 
mighty is puny man in the strength of his 
determination to prevail with God. For 
prevail he did: for just before the morning 
dawned the light from the Excellent Glory 
streamed into his darkened soul, and filled 
his anguished spirit with delight the most 
rapturous, and peace the most profound. 
Like a prince did he prevail, and a prince 
indeed did he become, as with his conversion 
passed away all low and groveling views of 
manhood, and his life from that day took on 
the noblest type of Christian devotion. He 
lives still to evince the power of redeeming 
grace to elevate and dignify the soul and 
life of man. And he is calmly waiting down 
by the river's edge till the angels come to 
bear him across the stream where the Man 



104 PEN PICTURES. 

of Calvary, his best beloved, reigns. Mean- 
while he is instant in season and out of sea- 
son in laboring for the Master and doing 
what he can to promote His glory upon the 
earth, for he has fully learned by his own 
experience that " he that winneth souls is 
wise " beyond all the wisdom of this world. 
" Let him know that he which converted 
the sinner from the error of his way shall 
save a soul from death and shall hide a 
multitude of sins." 



CHIPS. 



BY REV. F. F. JEWELL. 



WHOSE FAULT IT WAS. 

At an official meeting some time in 1873, 
as the business was nearly at the end of 
the docket, a somewhat seedy and battered 
looking subject opened the door of the 
room where the Board was in session, and 
then half closed it again and stepped back 
into the hallway. Some one stepped to the 
door and asked him what was wanted. He 
was encouraged by the kind looks and tone 
of the self-constituted usher, and advanced 
to mutter in suppressed tone, " I want to be 
prayed for." He had assumed that all 
meetings were or ought to be " religious," 
which shows how benighted his mind was 
in such matters, and how long he had wan- 
dered from churches and church associa- 
tions. He, however, was tolerated, and his 
"sin of ignorance winked at," and the pas- 
tor was informed that a candidate for the 

5* 



106 chips. 

benefits of church and clergy was in wait- 
ing. Pie was asked to take a seat and wait 
but for a moment until the items of business 
on hand were disposed of, and then he 
should be encouraged in his healthful im- 
pulses of seeking the right way. After 
the matter in hand was completed, the 
stranger was asked to indicate his needs,, 
and the special phases of his case which we 
could bear before the throne of grace in 
prayer. He seemed to hesitate, as if in 
doubt where to begin the catalogue of sins 
and wants ; when he reached a point of de- 
cision, and dropping upon his knees, he be- 
gan a prayer for himself. He acknowledged 
his aberrations and deflections, divergences 
and wanderings, in such language as he 
could command, until he reached the point 
of negotiation, when he said : " O, Lord, 
if you will take me back again into your 
favor, and forgive me for going away, 
if I ever backslide again it will be my own 
fault." Then we reflected ; how represent- 
ative, after all, was this somewhat amusing 
implication that the burden of responsibil- 
ity was somewhere else than on the sinner's 
own head, for all the sins and follies of a 
bad life. 

How frequently this unw r orthy concep- 



chips. 107 

tion is cherished, is seen in the apologies 
and explanations which are so frequently 
found on our lips. Listen to these apolo- 
gies and explanations for a moment. This 
man pleads a constitutional excess of pas- 
sions. He was born charged with such 
impetuous desires that no one could reason- 
ably expect him to resist them. Another 
talks of the environments of life, and the 
social difficulties which hedge up his way 
to life eternal ; while a third talks of the 
seductiveness of worldly things : and thus 
all seek to transfer the responsibility of their 
sinful practices to the Infinite Father who 
has created, surrounded, and endowed us in 
mercy and love. It is ever " our," as it 
was " his," own fault when we sin. 

WEDDING INCIDENTS. 

Upon returning to the parsonage one day, 
I found in waiting a pair whose errand was 
indicated by the relation the chairs they 
occupied had assumed to each other. The 
young woman, the bride elect, was first to 
speak ; which fact may find an explanation 
in what afterwards appeared, in arranging 
the preliminaries to the important event. 
Among the usual questions in the catechism 



108 chips. 

in such cases made and provided, as the 
language of the statute would have it, came 
the inquiry whether either of the parties 
had been in matrimonial bonds before. The 
bride, whose age was given at twenty, with 
a careless toss of the head, and a free and 
easy air, replied : " You ought to know. 
You married me yourself in this room less 
than a year ago." I said : " Indeed ! and 
what has become of the groom, on that oc- 
casion ? " Her answer was : " He was no 
good. I got rid of him." I said: "How, by 
drowning or chloroforming? " She answer- 
ed : " Oh, not so bad as that. I got a 
divorce." I wonder if this was the case 
spoken of by the wife of a divorce lawyer 
in the city, who said she asked for the 
grounds, when her husband informed her 
that he had just procured a divorce for a 
young " twain " of this neighborhood and 
acquaintance, and her husband replied : 
" There were no grounds, only they wanted 
it. I forget now what the grounds stated 
in the suit were ; we only use what prom- 
ises to be the most effectual in gaining the 
point aimed at." What a commentary upon 
the facility with which divorces may be ob- 
tained under the laws and in the courts of 
California. And California is not singular 
among the State sisterhood in this matter. 



chips. 109 

Is it not reasonable, upon other consider- 
ations than the regulation of family matters 
in Utah, that Congress should have and 
exercise the right to regulate this great 
question, and protect that institution that 
furnishes to American society the real safe- 
guards, and supports ? The facility above 
referred to, existing in so many States of the 
Union, is a standing temptation to selfish, 
dissolute and licentious men and women all 
through the land, and just to the extent the 
temptation is felt even, the family is endan- 
gered and the nation menaced. 

AFTER MANY YEARS. 

Another, with an entirely different moral, 
and indicative of a genuine affection, which 
did not fade from the heart even when the 
rose had faded from the cheek, occurred 
about the same time. A man of mature 
years, with threads of silver glistening 
among the locks that clustered around a 
brow somewhat bronzed and beaten by the 
vicissitudes which had* been met in the 
journey of life, stood before me to arrange 
for the ceremony which was to place him in 
possession of what every sensible man at 
that age desires, a wife. He remarked : 



110 CHIPS. 

" She is on the Panama steamer expected 
to-day, and as soon as convenient after her 
arrival we would like to come to the parson- 
age for the marriage ceremony." 

He lingered a little after all necessary 
arrangements were made, and upon a little 
encouragement given, perhaps, by some 
slight questioning, he proceeded to tell the 
story ; first, of an early courtship in Brook- 
lyn, N. Y., where more than twenty-five 
years before, " soft eyes spake love to 
eyes that spake again." As has been true 
in the experience of others " the course 
of true love did not run smoothly " ; and 
social ambition on the part of the parents 
of the girl interfered with the plans of the 
young lovers, and paternal authority for- 
bade her encouraging his bounding hopes 
and cherished desires of making her his 
wife. 

Chagrined and half maddened by the 
reflections thus cast upon his manhood's 
worth, he turned his back upon the " city 
of churches," and what to him was more, 
the home of the one he loved with all the 
ardor of a young and true heart, and em- 
barked for California. Here, amidst the 
excitements and varying fortunes of those 
early days, he was tossed hither and thith- 



CHIPS. Ill 

er, until the " glittering bait was held aloft 
again, and Australia invited the young ad- 
venturer to try his fortunes in that far-off 
land of promise."* There he married, and 
there, after a brief married life, he laid a 
faithful companion in the grave, and with 
a sad heart turned his face again toward 
California. Here, after years in which no 
word had been received from or sent to 
the " girl he left behind him," he chanced 
to meet one whom he had known in boy- 
hood, and from whom he learned that the 
object of his first love was still alive. She, 
too, had entered into the marriage relation, 
had bowed in sorrow to the stroke that left 
her in widowhood, and was now in the 
M home citv," doubtless wondering, at times, 
if ever tidings would be borne to her of 
the one she had never ceased to regard 
as having a right to her hand. 

Immediately upon learning this he wrote 
her, and in due time an answer came. The 
flame which had lain latent in each bosom 
kindled anew, and the rest is soon told. 
She came, they were wedded, and the shad- 
ows went back on the dial of Ahaz, and in- 
stead of afternoon it was morning again. 
May many years crown the long-delayed 
union of two true and loving hearts. 



112 CHIPS. 

PASTORAL WORK. 

About midnight a vigorous pull at the 
door-bell of the parsonage awakened us from 
our slumbers, and a demoralized looking 
specimen of the soaker class appeared at the 
door, urging that his Riverence hasten with 
him to where a woman was said to be dying. 
We followed as he led the way from street 
to street and lane to alley, until we were 
ushered into the damp, dismal basement 
hallway leading to a rear tenement of a di- 
lapidated rookery, in the cellar or basement 
of which, by the light of a candle, which, be- 
cause of its companionship, or the foul atmos- 
phere in which it was caught, seemed anxious 
to " go out" we saw on a pile of rags a hu- 
man form, which once, perhaps, but now no 
longer, might be called a woman. Bloated, 
haggard, frenzied, in the awful horrors of 
delirium tremens, she was alternately shriek- 
ing and piteously pleading for rescue from 
the fiery scorpion fangs of the myriad hydra- 
headed demons which were piercing her 
very soul and kindling the flames of hell in 
every vein and artery of her already charred 
and loathsome body. The three or four at- 
tendants in that vestibule of Tartarus were 
drunk, and could only utter unintelligible 
babblings as we approached. We endured 



CHIPS. 113 

the sight as long as our heart would consent 
to remain, and utterly powerless to render 
aid, turned away to thread our way back 
again to the open air, and to the home where 
quiet slumber held our household in its 
downy arms of rest. That was only the 
obverse side of the wholesale liquor dealer's 
palatial home; the self-complacent wealthy 
brewer's luxurious couch ; the prosperous 
saloon keeper's well-furnished apartments : 
the other end of the line, whose opening- 
portal is the fashionable wine glass offered 
amid the gayeties of so-called refined society, 
where youth and beauty flutter around the 
gilded margin of this maelstrom of death, to 
hurl contempt toward all those whose voices 
are lifted to warn them of their danger. 

RECEPTION OF MEMBERS FROM THE HARRI- 
SON REVIVAL. 

Perhaps no scene connected with revival 
work in the church at any period of its his- 
tory awakened more interest and delight 
than the reception of the Probationers, 

which were gathered from the meetings con- 
es o 

ducted by Thomas Harrison into full mem- 
bership in the church on Sunday, May 7, 
1882, when one hundred persons stood at 
one time, forming a hollow square extending 



114 CHIPS. 

across the altar from down both centre aisles 
and across the rear of the audience room, 
until the ends of the columns thus formed 
met and united. The first name called was 
responded to by one who arose slowly, as- 
sisted by his cane on one side and a de- 
voted Christian wife on the other, whose 
four-score years had been spent in a morally 
"far country," and who had just returned 
from his bondage in that strange land; and 
now with that Christian wife, who had long 
prayed for him, was rejoicing in heirship to 
an inheritance incorruptible, the title deed 
of which had but recently been placed in 
his possession. In that line were here and 
there to be seen the bright eyes and smooth 
brows of childhood, as well as those of ma- 
turer years — indeed, a large proportion of 
the year-dates of the {present century would 
be found represented in the birth record of 
those who made up the lines of that hollow 
square before us. The service consisted 
mainly of an address by the pastor, explain- 
ing and enforcing the disciplinary forms of 
reception, which emphasize the nature of 
the church as "the household of Grod, the 
body of which Christ is the head "; also, 
the "ends," "duties," and "privileges" of 
the fellowship into which they were entering. 
Slowly the column moved forward from left 



CHIPS. 115 

to right, and as each passed, a certificate 
bearing the picture of the church and giving 
the date and fact of admission into full 
church membership was placed in the hands 
of each one by J. K. Jones, the S. S. Super- 
intendent, who had given full and hearty 
co-operation to the revival movement from 
the first. All who saw it admitted that it 
was a scene rarely exhibited in the life his- 
tory of any church organization. 

AN OLD FASHIONED CONVERSION. 

An incident of the revival illustrating the 
depth of conviction produced by the pun- 
gent utterances of this phenomenal preach- 
er and revivalist, attended by the power of 
the Holy Spirit, occurred in one of the eve- 
ning services. The invitation had gone 
forth for seekers to come to the altar, and 
the singing was in progress, when a pleas- 
ant looking lady of about thirty years, 
evincing much feeling and evidently strug- 
gling to resist her convictions of duty, 
arose from her seat, and came rapidly along 
the aisle until she reached the altar, and 
immediately dropped on her knees and be- 
gan to pray. Her frame convulsed witli 
emotion, and there seemed pent up within 
her heart a Niagara of penitence seeking 



116 CHIPS. 

for repression, when suddenly she seemed 

to sink into a swoon, and anxious friends 

standing or kneeling near her seeing- it, be- 
es O O " 

came alarmed. She was borne into the 
" study," which opened near the altar, and 
placed in a position where the anxious 
friends could minister to her, and use prop- 
er means for her restoration to conscious- 
ness. One proposed one thing, and one an- 
other, while the third proposed to call a 
physician without delay. This last coun- 
sel seemed likely to prevail, and some one 
was about to do so, when an old member of 
the church, one whose conversion occurred 
in the earlier days of Methodism, and had 
produced memories which seemed to give 
her tranquility, while the others were anx- 
iously puzzled with the phenomenon at 
hand, said in assuring tones : "Never mind 
about calling a doctor ; let her alone. She 
will come out all right. She is in the 
hands of the right physician now. She 
will recover. Let her alone, I say." A 
few moments of anxious waiting and watch- 
ing followed, when the lips parted, the eyes 
gently opened, and first in whispers was 
heard what afterwards broke forth in au- 
dible and even in voiceful tones : " Glory 
to Jesus." " He saves me." " Glory, glo- 
ry." She was declared convalescent, and 



CHIPS. 117 

there was rejoicing that human practition- 
ers had not taken her out of the hands of the 
only One who can do helpless sinners good. 

As a reminiscence, I furnish the address 
made by Hon. Chas. Goodall at my fifth 
reception as an appointee to the Howard 
Street Church pastorate, held at the church 
parlors, October 5th, 1883. 

Dear Brother and Pastor : I have 
been requested by members of the church 
to say a word of welcome to our new pas- 
tor. They seem to have an idea that I am ac- 
quainted with you, and should introduce you 
to them, who are strangers. But it cannot 
be so, for let me assure you, my dear brother, 
that it was with one accord they asked the 
Bishop to appoint you to this charge. 

And it must be said they had good rea- 
son for making such request. They had 
heard how well you succeeded in your 
charge last year. 

The storv o'oes that the church where you 
labored last year was mortgaged for $10,000, 
and that under your administration it was 
paid off, and that all other expenses, includ- 
ing your own salary (alas ! too small) were 
also paid up, and that you came to Confer- 
ence with the largest collections for the 
benevolent institutions of the church of any 
charge represented. 



118 CHIPS. 

That the people flocked to hear your 
preaching like doves to the windows. That 
you visited the members at their homes, 
talked and prayed with them, encouraged 
them in the difficulties and disappointments 
in life, and pointed them to the goodly land 
where troubles and sickness and sorrow 
never come. That you tenderly took the 
little children in your arms and blessed 
them. That you joined the hands of them 
together whose hearts but beat as one. 
That you laid reverently and gently away 
in the tomb the remains of the loved and 
honored dead, and comforted the mourning 
ones with the blessed assurance that it was 
their blessed privilege to meet their depart- 
ed friends, " where the wicked cease from 
troubling and the w T eary are at rest." 

No wonder, then, that our people hearing 
of all this, unanimously asked the Bishop 
to appoint you to this charge. And I do 
assure you that I speak the sentiment of 
each member of our society, when I say : 
" Inasmuch as you did it unto the least of 
these my brethren, you did it unto me." 

Again, in the name of the church and 
congregation, I welcome you, our new but 
well known and dearly beloved pastor of 
the Howard Street Methodist Church. 



BLAIN MEMORIAL. 



ADDRESS BY R. McELEOY. 



" Death rides on every passing breeze, 
and lurks in every flower " ; and yet, in the 
midst of his untiring industry, most kindly 
has he dealt by the pastors of this church. 
During her existence of some twenty-six 
years, but three who have ministered at her 
altars have been stricken down by his ruth- 
less hand. 

The scholarly Bannister, who had no 
peers in the realm of science or literature 
on this coast — a man of grand intellect, of 
finest culture, of purest Christian character ; 
a valiant soldier of Christ, abounding in 
every good work at all times and in all 
places ; one who seemed never to have 
known guile, the very soul of honor ; one 
whose mien was saintly, whose inmost 
thought was pure as the virgin snow, 
whose aims and ambitions in life were of 
the most loftv and ennobling character: 



120 BLAIN MEMORIAL. 

whose every wish was to glorify his Maker 
and benefit his fellow men ; a man who 
seemed only ignorant of the meaning of 
selfishness, and was continually absorbed 
in the luxury of living for others ; such 
was he who was suddenly halted in life's 
weary march, and his itinerant journeyings 
abruptly ended when his sun had scarcely 
reached meridian. Peacefully the broken 
casket sleeps on the banks of the Yuba, 
while the jew r el, bright and sparkling, adorns 
the Master's crown in the land of everlast- 
ing sunlight and beauty. 

Geo. S. Phillips, after much toil and suc- 
cessful labor, fainted by the way, and was 
compelled to seek health in an Eastern trip ; 
but that precious gem never again came 
into his possession, and his weary head lies 
pillowed beneath the soil of his native state 
of Ohio, while his sainted spirit has entered 
upon its wonderful life of never-ending fe- 
licity. 

And now has the busy destroyer visited 
our altars again ; for the tidings come to 
our ears from the distant city of Newark, 
N. J., that Rev. John D. Blain has lan- 
guished into life by passing through the 
portals of death. 

In the year 1861, this society was wor- 



BLAIN MEMORIAL. 121 

shipping in a small wooden building on 
Folsom street. The congregation was mea- 
ger, and the membership but a handful. 
The location of the church was in the midst 
of extensive sand dunes, and but little pop- 
ulation surrounded it. It was, in fact, but 
an outpost on the skirts of the rising city. 
Nobly had the little band struggled to main- 
tain its existence during the ten years of 
its then history. Good and true men had 
filled its pulpit, but all had comparatively 
failed to elicit much interest in the general 
community, in reference to this feeble vine. 
To reach the church one was compelled to 
make a Sabbath day's journey through 
drifting sand and howling winds. To 
crowd the little temple under such forbid- 
ding circumstances was a task of no mean 
accomplishment. And yet the newly ap- 
pointed pastor, from the Conference of that 
year, was adequate to the task. No 
sooner had he entered on his work, but 
he began, from house to house, to seek out 
the lost sheep of our Israel. And this la- 
bor was not long in manifesting itself in the 
crowds which came flocking from every 
quarter of the city to his ministry. It now 
required more than drifting sands, or howl- 
ing winds, or isolated position, to keep the 



122 BLAIN MEMORIAL. 

people away. Brother Blain had somehow 
made them feel that he was their friend and 
brother ; that he was interested in all their 
joys and sorrows ; that he knew the heart 
of a stranger, and could sympathize with all 
who were enduring the pangs of desolate 
loneliness. And the number of these in the 
primitive days of American California his- 
tory was legion. No man knew his neigh- 
bor. Every one was in the midst of a Sa- 
hara, although surrounded by myriads of 
human beings ; for they had come from the 
east and the west, from the north and the 
south. Every nationality was represented. 
Every clime under the whole heaven here 
revealed its peculiar type of humanity. 
And yet for each the pastor of the little 
sand-hill church had a kind word, a pleas- 
ant smile of recognition, and a hearty God 
speed. But a little time elapsed before 
every body knew Brother Blain, and every 
body as fondly loved him. 

Nor was this admiration confined to 
any particular sect or any particular peo- 
ple. Both Jew and Gentile, both Catholic 
and Protestant, both saint and sinner, the 
godless as well as the godly, merchant 
princes in their purple and fine linen, and 
paupers in their penury and rags, alike re- 



BLAIN MEMORIAL. 123 

spected and honored him. For all knew 
that he loved them and desired to do them 
good, not because of their outside surround- 
ings or their peculiar station in life, but be- 
cause they were men, and all belonged to 
one common brotherhood. No wonder, 
then, with this universal sentiment in his 
favor, that his influence became as broad 
and far reaching as the community itself. 
No wonder that every man and every wom- 
an about entering the sacred portals of 
wedlock wanted their nuptials celebrated 
by Brother Blain. No wonder that all who 
had the remains of a loved one to be con- 
signed to the tomb, desired the burial ser- 
vices to be performed by him. No wonder 
that when the little wooden temple became 
too small to accommodate the ever-increasing 
throng which came to listen to words of 
consolation and cheer drawn from the Book 
of God, the people came forward and pour- 
ed out their money like water to provide 
him a more spacious edifice. 

As the result of this influence and this 
generosity, we stand this day within the 
walls of this magnificent temple, for had it 
not been for John D. Blain this temple had 
not been here. He conceived the idea of 
its erection, he planned all its appointments, 



124 BLAIN MEMORIAL. 

he solicited the funds to execute its build- 
ing, and many a weary hour, both of body 
and mind, he gave freely and cheerfully 
to its service. In fact, so many were those 
hours, and so heavy were their toils, that 
his nervous system received its death 
wound in the midst of them. Never was 
John D. Blain the same vigorous, robust 
man after his departure from this pulpit, 
as he was before he entered it. And al- 
though he has lingered on the shores of 
time, some ten or twelve years since, yet 
his was a shattered, painful existence, which 
gave him but little comfort or joy. 

Work, however, did he till the last, for 
work was his normal nature ; and his high- 
est bliss consisted in trying to build up the 
Redeemer's Kingdom on the earth. But 
he rests now. The feverish dream of life 
is over with him, and among the beatitudes 
of the skies he has entered upon a life of 
ever expanding, ever increasing glory. 

" Life's labor done as sinks the clay, 
Light from its load the Spirit flies, 
While heaven and earth combine to say, 
How blest the righteous when he dies." 




REV. THOMAS GUARD. 



GUARD MEMORIAL. 



ADDKESS BY J. M. BUFFINGTON. 



Dr. Thomas Guard was born in Gal way 
County, Ireland, on the 3rd of June, 1831. 
His father, Eev. William Guard, left four 
sons, three of whom became ministers : 
Wesley Guard, a prominent clergyman in 
county Cork, Edward Guard, of Omagh, 
county Tyrone, and Dr. Thomas Guard — 
the subject of this sketch. 

Dr. Guard was educated in his native 
county, and entered the Irish Conference 
at the as;e of 21. Six years later he mar- 
ried a Miss Isabel Barrett, of Dublin, by 
whom he had seven children — five sons and 
two daughters. About four years after 
their marriage, his wife's health being very 
delicate, they left Ireland for South Africa, 
where they remained for nine years. Dr. 
Guard labored earnestly in the colonies 
there until 1871, when he came to this 
country with the intention of raising money 



126 GUARD MEMORIAL. 

sufficient to build a church in Africa, and 
then of returning. 

His lectures, delivered in nearly all of 
our principal cities, showed such power of 
oratory as to attract great interest. He re- 
ceived calls from several churches, and 
finally accepted that of the Mount Vernon 
Church of Baltimore, Md. The congrega- 
tion was then known as the "Charles 
Street," and Dr. Guard preached in the 
New Assembly Rooms of that city several 
months before the completion of the church. 
At the end of three years he came to San 
Francisco, and accepted the pastorate of the 
Howard Street M. E. Church, where he re- 
mained from Sept., 1875, to Sept., 1878, 
meeting with marked success and making 
for himself staunch friends. While in this 
city he met with a great bereavement in the 
death of his wife. 

At the expiration of his term with this 
church he moved to Oakland. From there 
he was recalled to Baltimore, and on the 
14th of October, 1882, while yet in the 
prime of life, and surrounded by loving 
friends, his Master called him home. 

The Rev. Robert Crook, LL. D., states 
" that from the first he was a man of great 
promise, distinguished as a preacher and 



GUARD MEMORIAL. 127 

lecturer ; that he was a great reader, pos- 
sessed a very retentive memory and did not 
take much interest in the business affairs of 
the church." 

His intellectual gifts were remarkable. 
His command of language was inexhaust- 
ble, and his memory, apparently, never 
failed him. His articulation was rapid and 
rather indistinct ; this, with his foreign ac- 
cent, made it difficult for those unaccustomed 
to him to catch his words, but when once at- 
tention was attracted, his audiences were 
invariably impressed by his remarkable flow 
of words, the brilliancy of his ideas, and his 
own enthusiasm in his subject. He was a 
brilliant conversationalist, although some- 
times abrupt. 

" Mr. Guard's spirit was one of the most 
childlike simplicity; he was without tact, 
and could never understand our ways of 
doing things. If he desired to awaken the 
most uneducated sinner, he would appeal to 
him by considerations drawn from every field 
of thought, and expressed in language of 
elaborate finish and beauty. He was not a 
pastor. Though tender and sympathetic as 
a sister, systematic calls he knew not how 
to make, and records were an inscrutable 
mystery to him. 



128 GUARD MEMORIAL. 

Like many other men, his defects were 
the excess of his qualities. He was ever 
and under all circumstances, first, middle, 
and last, an orator. With a practical man 
for a colleague, every one would have said : 
' With Thomas Guard to preach, and his 
colleague to attend to everything else, the 
church is thoroughly furnished unto every 
good word and work.' ' : 

His death came as a sudden blow to his 
friends. Though for four years he at times 
suffered great pain, he worked with much 
energy until the end. His last lecture was 
delivered a little more than a week before 
his death, which was caused by acute gas- 
tritis, attacks of which he had been subject 
to for many years. 

The funeral took place from Mount 
Yernon Church, which was appropriately 
draped for the occasion. Among those 
present were a delegation of Methodist min- 
isters from Philadelphia, and a number of 
ministers from other denominations. 

At the memorial service held in the How- 
ard Street M. E. Church, October 22, the 
following address was delivered by Rev. Dr. 
Wythe, a warm personal friend of Dr. 
Guard, which gives an excellent description 
of his character. 



GUARD MEMORIAL. 129 

Dr. Wythe said: 

"The duty assigned to me is not 
only sad but difficult, since the subject 
on which I am desired to address you 
is one of such magnitude, and so many- 
sided, as to require ability more than I 
possess. A week ago the telegraph flashed 
the news across the continent, that the Rev. 
Thomas Guard, the eloquent preacher, was 
dead. Few heard the tidings without a 
shock ; they were so unexpected and un- 
heralded. This sad event has brought us 
together for memorial services — a token of 
our respect for exalted ability and great 
usefulness. I have been requested to speak 
of the character and life of our deceased 
friend. It is not easy to do this, for Dr. 
Guard was an extraordinary man. He was 
like a gem covered with sparkling facets. 
His genius and oratory were of more than 
usual brilliancy. It would require his own 
descriptive powers, with a keener insight 
into character, to do him justice. Yet, as 
our relations were intimate, it is deemed fit- 
ting that I should speak, however imper- 
fectly, upon this theme. I bring only a 
simple tribute of sincere appreciation of one 
who honored me as a friend, and always 
recognized me as a fellow-minister of the 



130 GUARD MEMORIAL. 

gospel of Christ. The tender sympathy in 
my own recent affliction is brought into 
strong relief by his death, and makes his 
removal a personal loss. ' The memory of 
the just is blessed,' for it proves the super- 
iority of spiritual reality to all material 
good. I desire to consider our brother as 
a man, as a Christian, and as a Christian 
minister. 

I. As a man : The most striking trait 
was a certain warmth and buoyancy of dis- 
position which rendered him companionable. 
There was no assumption of dignity and 
superiority, nor sourness or asceticism in his 
manner. The Celtic fire of his heart shone 
from his eyes, and won to him friends from 
all classes of society. He seemed to live in 
continued sunshine, and as if he enjoyed the 
sunshine too. There appeared about him 
nothing of constraint, nothing assumed. 
The words and actions were natural and 
spontaneous ; the outgushing of a nature in 
harmony with God's universe. His sim- 
plicity and frankness were obvious to all 
who knew him. He united the heart of a 
child with the mind of a man. Although 
guileless and unsuspicious of wrong designs, 
he was utterly incapable of policy and de- 
ceit. He could not favor, and would not 



GUARD MEMORIAL. 131 

stoop, either to gain the favor of the rich, 
or to escape from the strife of tongues. 
This characteristic was sometimes shown 
by its reaction. His contempt of duplicity 
in others was the very perfection of scorn- 
He had such a quick recognition of moral 
rectitude, and such a spirit of repudiation 
for what lie deemed wrong, that he would 
not treat as a friend one who appeared 
morally unworthy. He was far more an- 
tagonistic to spiritual sins, like envy, and 
malice, and guile, than to others ; for if sen- 
sual sins make a man a brute, spiritual 
wickedness renders him a fiend. What 
failings were seen by the eye of friendship 
in our brother's life seemed to spring from 
his artless simplicity and guilelessness., and 
his antipathy to anything of an opposite 
character. 

Although lacking the drill of early and 
profound scholarship, he found a compen- 
sation in being an industrious and omnivar- 
ous reader of books. He had a remarkably 
quick perception, a most retentive memory, 
a poetic sensibility, and artistic power of 
comparison. These qualities combined to 
form the special bent or genius of his mind. 
These characteristics form the stuff of 
which orators are made. Had the energies 



132 GUARD MEMORIAL. 

which led him to soar above the common 
sphere of thought been harnessed and con- 
fined by sterner scholastic discipline, he 
would have shone as a beautiful planet, 
with clear, steady light. There might have 
been less brilliancy, less scintillation, but 
perhaps a wider orbit and a longer life. 
As a man, he had interest in every human- 
itarian enterprise. No good cause appealed 
to him in vain. No narrow groove of 
thought or creed confined his sympathies. 
Whatever touched the heart or liberties of 
mankind found a corresponding vibration 
in his nature. As he had traveled exten- 
sively, he had opportunity of studying the 
condition of many people, and the forms of 
government best adapted to the conform- 
ation of liberty and law, and the free choice 
of his mind was on the side of American 
institutions. By nature and by choice he 
loved the principles of American represen- 
tative o-overnment. 

He was as sensitive as a woman, as 
patriotic as a veteran, as loving as a child, 
and as impetuous as a torrent. Such men 
are rare. Only a few such are met with in 
a century. Such will always be attractive. 
They may have enemies, for all patriotic 
men — all who are worth anything — will 



GUARD MEMORIAL. 133 

meet with opposition ; but they will have 
also troops of friends, and friends who will 
be as true as steel. The grandeur of such 
characters rises above the forces of all ad- 
verse circumstances. 

" As some tall cliff that lifts its awful form, 
Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm, 
Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread, 
Eternal sunshine settles on its head." 

II. As a Christian, our brother was well 
established in the truths of evangelical reli- 
gion. His faith was no blind adhesion to a 
mere intellectual creed, but heartfelt trust, 
with a clear vision of the object trusted. 
His reason was fully satisfied with the intel- 
lectual revelation of truth made in the 
Bible, and he was a student of the Scrip- 
tures above all other books. This study 
brought him to the spiritual revelation of 
the truth as it is in Jesus. A spiritual rec- 
ognition of personal sin, an appropriation 
of the redemption made by Christ for the 
forgiveness of sin, a personal knowledge of 
actual salvation, and a constant dependence 
upon the sanctifying power of the Holy 
Spirit made our brother a real Christian. 
Yet he did not ignore the book of Nature, 
also written with the finger of God, but 



134 GUARD MEMORIAL. 

delighted to trace the accordance of its 
teaching with that of the Bible. 

His piety was sincere, experimental, ar- 
dent. Though unobtrusive and not boastful, 
yet there was a manly vigor in his religious 
experience which made him ready at all 
suitable times to acknowledge Christ as a 
personal Saviour. His public prayers 
showed to the Christian consciousness of 
the church that he was a man who held 
communion with God. Some of his friends 
even preferred his prayers to his sermons. 
They were sometimes wonderful for unction 
and touching simplicity. A Presbyterian 
minister told me he should never for- 
get the influence of one of his prayers, in 
which he referred to all the mercies of our 
Father as tender mercies, and to all his 
kindnesses as loving kindness. No man 
could pray as he prayed who did not live 
near the heart of God. 

III. As a minister, he regarded the pul- 
pit as his sphere. His personal character- 
istics rendered it peculiarly appropriate to 
him. Whatever he may have been outside 
the pulpit, there he was an ambassador 
from God, a herald of the sovereign Kino;. 
The splendor of his oratory and the wealth 
of his mind were made there garlands for 



GUARD MEMORIAL. 135 

the cross of Christ. He wielded the sword 
of the Spirit with such incisive discrimina- 
tion that it often became a discerner of the 
thoughts and intents of the heart. The 
love manifest on Calvary, and the supreme 
glory of Christ were themes which fired 
his soul with almost seraphic ecstasy. 

His sermons showed careful preparation 
and a most remarkable memory. Many of 
his most brilliant passages were very care- 
fully studied ; yet inspired with his theme, 
he sometimes soared far beyond all pre- 
vious thought. The style was antithetical 
and ornate, but he often required an elab- 
orate introduction to bring him into sym- 
pathy with his subject, so that his mind 
could have full play. To some persons 
this was tedious, especially to those who 
love to recline at their ease in church, and 
have the Gospel diluted and strained in 
fifteen-minute sermonettes ; but to the 
thoughtful and refined, the sermons of our 
brother were an intellectual and a spiritual 
feast, and the church was generally crowd- 
ed with such hearers. 

His public lectures, as well as his ser- 
mons, grappled with the religious questions 
of the age and left a marked impression. 
Few that heard will soon foro*et the scene 



136 GUARD MEMORIAL. 

in his lecture on the influence of the Bible 
on the age, which represented a skeptic 
trying to obliterate the marks of the Bible 
on civilization ; ransacking the public 
and private libraries to erase Christian 
thought from literature ; going to our 
court-houses and halls of record to elimi- 
nate A. D. from all our title-deeds ; and to 
our state-houses to remove all traces from 
legal and constitutional enactments; and 
even stooping down in our cemeteries, chis- 
el in hand, to chip all Christian references 
from the grave-stones of our honored dead. 
The public tested his oratorical powers 
perhaps too severely for his strength, but 
they were not found wanting in the cause 
of truth and religion. No college of learn- 
ing honored itself by conferring upon him 
the Doctorate, which in a by-gone age was 
the synonym for teacher ; but the great col- 
ege of the public recognized his worth 
and teaching qualities ; and to the public 
he is known, and will be, as Dr. Guard. 
He had a generous catholic spirit, and a 
true Christian fellowship with other denom- 
inations ; yet he was conscientiously attach- 
ed to the doctrines and usages of Metho- 
dism, and regretted to see in his own church 
any variation from what he deemed the 



GUARD MEMORIAL. 137 

true spirit of the denomination. He espec- 
ially condemned the laying aside of the 
grand and beautiful poetry of Charles 
Wesley for the ryhming jingle of our mod- 
ern social songs. He regarded it as an of- 
fense to good taste, spiritually. The es- 
prit de corps of the Methodist ministry 
was to him delightful, and this was one of 
the chief attractions of Baltimore, where 
he had seen it in such perfection. How 
often he expressed a wish that it might 
flourish here as there, and how often he 
had fostered the sentiment by preaching 
and lecturing for churches in the country 
who were too poor to pay their preacher's 
salary ! 

His death is a loss to this coast as well as 
to the church at large. The memory of 
such ministers is precious. The church 
cannot afford to pass them by. The hom- 
age paid by such minds to the cross of 
Christ is an argument for the truth and 
divinity of Christianity. Here, at least, in 
this new country, so full of materialism and 
materialistic tendencies, the memory of our 
brother's oratory, so spiritual and so bibli- 
cal, is a precious legacy to the church which 
will not soon be forgotten. Our brother is 
now at rest. With other ministers of our 



138 GUARD MEMORIAL. 

church, who have labored here for the 
Master and have been called home, he has 
entered upon his reward. " They rest 
from their labors, and their works do follow 
them." 

" ' And so he giveth his beloved sleep,' 

As seemeth to him best ; O ! blessed thought 
God's holy Writ hath through the ages brought 
To comfort those that sorrowful must weep, 
Nor leave them desolate : our cross of woe 
Is by the priceless words of Christ made light ; 
His consolation, sorrow's darkest night 
So sweet illuminates, that we may go 
Rejoicingly, that ' death hath lost its sting, 
The grave, its victory ' ; the friends we love 
Will in God's golden harvest fields above 
In his good time know perfect blossoming ; 
And all these heavy griefs that make life dim 
But draw the suffering children closer him." 




REV. J. T. PECK, D. D. 



PECK MEMORIAL. 



ADDRESS BY RE V. F. F. JEWELL. 



Jesse Truesdell Peck was born in Middle- 
field, Otsego County, N. Y., Aug. 14, 1811, 
and died in Syracuse, N. Y., May 18, 1883. 
He was one of eleven children — five sons 
and six daughters — all of whom became 
members of the Methodist Episcopal Church; 
the five sons entering the ministry of the 
church in which the parents lived and died. 

When I was pastor of the church in Os- 
wego, N. Y., from which I was transferred 
to this in 1872, I had as my assistant a ven- 
erable father in the ministry, Rev. Reuben 
Reynolds, who was for some time district 
school teacher in the neighborhood where 
the family of Luther Peck, father of Jesse, 
resided. In Dr. George Peck's autobio- 
graphy, I find this allusion to my friend : 
" My teacher was Reuben Reynolds, then, 
like myself, a licensed exhorter in the 
church, now an honored member of the 



140 PECK MEMOEIAL. 

Northern N. Y. Conference. This was in 
1815-16, which would find Jesse a child of 
four or five years. From Father Reynolds 
I learned very many things concerning the 
remarkable home that graduated so many 
sons into the ministry, and of the child 
Jesse, of whom my friend always delighted 
to say with his characteristic quaintness : " I 
taught him his letters, and I am glad I did ; 
he has made such good use of them." 

He was licensed as a local preacher at the 
early age of eighteen. Three years after- 
ward, when twenty-one years old, he joined 
the old Oneida Conference, and commenced 
his itinerant career, with no other idea in his 
heart than to give all his years to this work, 
for which he seemed so well fitted, even 
from the beginning. His consecration, how- 
ever, implied obedience to the voice of the 
church, and there was no hesitation when 
he was taken by that voice, and for sixteen 
years required to bear the usual, and in 
some cases, the unusual burdens, borne by 
the early educators in our Methodism. Five 
years afterward he was chosen Principal of 
Governeur Wesleyan Seminary, St. Law- 
rence County, N. Y. Here I found his 
name fragrant in many families and circles, 
where, long years afterwards, I was per- 



PECK MEMORIAL. 141 

mitted to enter. Here in his home his 
parents lived, and here his mother died. 

Of this mother it was written at that 
time : she was a true mother in Israel, kind 
and conciliatory in disposition, firm and pa- 
tient under trials, praying without ceasing 
with strong and victorious faith, fervent in 
spirit serving the Lord. She had a sympa- 
thetic heart, which prompted her to care for 
the sick and the poor, and seek diligently 
the wandering, the discouraged, and the 
reckless. Her burning zeal impressed all 
who came into her presence. The giddy 
and the profane were struck dumb by her 
tender reproof s uttered in well-chosen words 
and in the spirit of kindness, and her desire 
for the salvation of souls often engaged her 
in personal efforts which won them to the 
Savior. She early consecrated her children 
to God, and sought by precept and example 
to lead them to Christ. They were all con- 
verted. Two of her daughters died before 
her in holy triumph, and she lived to see 
all her sons in the Gospel ministry. When 
she heard the last one of them preach, she 
said : " Now Lord, lettest thou thy hand- 
maiden depart in peace, for mine eyes have 
seen thy salvation." Of her death, Eev. 
Dr. Wentworth, then her pastor, said it was 



142 PECK MEMORIAL. 

peaceful and triumphant— a fitting close to 
such a life. The venerable servant of God 
(alluding to her husband) was waiting to 
close the eyes of the companion of his youth. 
The breeze of an autumnal evening rustled 
the drapery of a open window, but besides 
this there was no sound, save the deep 
breathing of the aged sufferer. Suddenly 
the soft, silvery, tremulous voice of the 
white-haired veteran fell upon the ear : 
" Give joy or grief ; give ease or pain ; take 
life or friends away, etc." 

" I fancied," says the Dr., " that the dy- 
ing saint listened to the music of two 
worlds, and listening, smiled and died." 
I have inserted this glimpse of his mother, 
that in the analysis of the character of our 
departed friend, due credit may be given to 
the one who under God gave directions to, 
and to indicate from whom he inherited, 
some of the most striking traits of his beau- 
tiful character. His pulpit power was here 
recognized, and his services sought on vari- 
ous occasions, as an able and talented 
preacher of the word. 

This power was felt, however, to most 
advantage in the school, where in remarka- 
ble revivals, his emotional oratory was made 
a means of awakening many a young man, 



PECK MEMORIAL. 143 

who afterwards entered the ranks of the 
Christian ministry. Here occurred what 
was perhaps representative of the times, 
as an incident in revival work. 

Governeur was, and has generally been, 
a strong Presbyterian community. The 
Presbyterian minister sometimes attended 
the chapel services, and was careful, espec- 
ially when revival meetings were in pro- 
gress, to lend his presence in the interest of 
religious decorum and propriety. On one 
of these occasions the altar was crowded 
with penitents, and there were sobs min- 
gled with earnest prayers from stricken 
penitents on every side. The Presbyteri- 
an minister, in looking about, saw among 
those weeping ones a child of his own flock 
sobbing as violently as any. He approach- 
ed her, and taking her by the arm raised 
her to her feet, and leading her to one of 
his Elders who was just at hand, he said : 
" Take this girl out of doors ; she needs 
fresh air." The Principal firmly said : 
" She needs salvation." " Let us pray for 
her." 

From Governeur he was transferred to 
the Troy Conference, and placed in charge 
of the Troy Conference Seminary at West 
Poultney, Yt., in the spring of 1841. A 



144 PECK MEMOEIAL. 

wider field here opened before the already 
successful young Principal. The academy 
building was large and beautiful, costing 
$40,000 at a period when building was far 
less expensive than now. 

Here, with a corps of professors under 
him, most of whom became eminent in af- 
ter years in the field of instruction aud lit- 
erature, he commanded the respect and con- 
fidence of all for his geniality, energy, and 
wisdom in administration. Here, as at 
Governeur, extensive revivals prevailed in 
the Seminary. Dr. Stephen D. Brown, of 
precious memory in the Troy Conference, 
was wont to speak of a sermon preached at 
one of the revival meetings in the school 
by the young Principal, as the most power- 
ful sermon to which in a lifetime he ever 
listened. 

From this he was elected President of 
Dickinson College, at Carlisle, Pennsylva- 
nia, where he remained four years. He 
then served a term as pastor of Foundry 
Church, Washington, D. C, at the close of 
which he was elected general secretary and 
editor of the Tract Society of the Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church. One term in the 
pastorate of the Green Street Church, N. 
Y., completed his labor in the East, previ- 



PECK MEMORIAL. 145 

ous to his transfer to this Conference and 
his labors on this coast. Of these another 
will speak. After his return to the East 
he served three charges, viz.: Peeksville, 
Hudson Street, Albany, and Centenary, Syr- 
acuse, where he was when elected to the 
Episcopacy in 1872. He was one of the 
founders, and I may say, the chief founder 
of the Syracuse University ; president of 
the first board of trustees, and to it he gave 
untiring labor, and all of his considerable 
fortune. 

I well remember his rinsing words in the 
State Convention of which he was chair- 
man ; which convention gave indorsement 
and form to the great ideas which had 
filled the great mind of this truly great man. 

He was five times a member of the Gen- 
eral Conference, and a fraternal delegate 
to the Canadian and East British Confer- 
ences. As an author he has given to his 
church and ages several valuable and some 
standard works, viz.: "The Central Idea 
of Christianity," "The True Woman — or 
Life and Happiness at Home and Abroad," 
" What Must I Do to be Saved," and " The 
History of the Great Republic from a Chris- 
tian Standpoint." 

It was while he was eno-ased in this work 



146 PECK MEMORIAL. 

I first met him, and an acquaintance began 
which has been a pleasure and a benedic- 
tion to me ever since. I was invited to his 
home. He was very busy in his literary 
labors. I spoke of the research and labor 
involved in his work. He replied, with a 
beaming face : " But, oh, it pays to trace 
the footprints and handiwork of our Heav- 
enly Father along the line of the ages." 
His transfer soon afterward to the Confer- 
ence of which I was a member, brought me 
into frequent contact with him after that, 
and served to produce what I felt honored 
to claim, a growing friendship between us. 
I have been associated with him at several 
dedications. I have heard him preach as 
but few men, living or dead, ever could 
preach, on great occasions, when the gospel 
would roll from his lips an avalanche of con- 
vincing and saving power. I sat beside 
him in the delegation as a member of the 
General Conference which elevated him to 
the Episcopacy. He was the first one to 
intimate to me that I was to be sent to San 
Francisco, and placed in charge of Howard 
Street Church. In that letter he said : " My 
Dear Jewell, if the way opens, as it seems 
to be doing, and duty says so, I know you 
will sfo." 



PECK MEMORIAL. 147 

He kindly wrote me a long letter on the 
eve of my departure for your midst, and 
gave me such counsel as was prompted by 
his great fatherly heart, and I nattered my- 
self to believe a special interest in me as a 
a friend. Amono- other things he said : 
" Trust the official members of the Howard 
Street Church ; I know them." He has 
kindly written me from time to time, al- 
though his work has been so absorbing, his 
last note being one of congratulation upon 
the improvement made last year in our 
church property. I mention these to express 
my feelings to-day. Bishop Peck was my 
personal friend, and whoever had his friend- 
ship had the friendship of as true a heart 
as ever throbbed in a human bosom. Of 
his last sickness we have learned but little 
beyond this ; that while otherwise enfeebled 
by sickness, pneumonia attacked him, and 
by it he was so prostrated as to be able to 
speak only in whispers, and was unconscious 
most of the time. His record was on hiodi ; 
and he has passed on to his treasure and 
the society of the redeemed in heaven. His 
life and labors are the legacy of the church 
— let us use it wisely. 



148 PECK MEMORIAL. 

ADDEESS BY R. McELEOY. 

Death, the mighty reaper, is still busy ; 
oh, how busy ! Not a moment's rest, and 
never weary. His gleaming sickle, with 
keenest edge, is ceaselessly leveling the 
tender shoot as well as the ripened grain. 
All ages, all classes, are stricken by his 
sturdy blows, and garnered for the mighty 
harvest. None are exempt; the good and 
the pure, as well as the evil and the vicious 
—all fall in their time, and are hidden from 
mortal view. Why, then, should this pulpit 
escape the general fiat? Why should 
heaven be unpeopled from this sacred 
desk ? Why should that shining shore 
have no representative from this platform ? 
If they come from the East and the West, 
from the North and the South, to sit down 
with Abraham in the kingdom of heaven, 
why should not God allow some who have 
stood here pointing pilgrims up to those 
golden thrones, to nestle very tenderly 
within the bosom of the glorified patriarch ? 
Surely, our work in this temple would be 
fruitless indeed, if the priests who min- 
ister at its altars are not permitted to go, 
when they weary in life's battle, to that 
favored seat where the harpers harp, and 
the redeemed sing. 



PECK MEMORIAL. 149 

We come then, on this memorial day, 
not to sadden our hearts with mournful 
dirges that our loved and revered are gone, 
but to gladden our spirits that they are 
counted worthy of so great honor as being- 
released from earthly labor and crowned 
with immortal glory. We rejoice that to- 
day, among those who stand upon the sea 
of o-lass mi no-led with fire, are those who 
once stood where we now stand, and told us 
of the blood which made them pure. Lips 
that clearly and forcefully announced the 
wondrous plan of salvation from this altar 
are now attuned to celestial melodies, and 
sing, oh, how sweetly, " the song of Moses 
and the Lamb ! " Xo cause, then, have we 
for sighs and tears, no room for bitter lamen- 
tation that Heath and Phillips, that Ban- 
nister and Blain,that Guard and Peck have 
left the damps of earth for the brightness 
and beauty of heaven. 

My acquaintance with Jesse T. Peck 
began in the year 1846. He was then the 
honored and successful Principal of Troy 
Conference Academy, in Poultney, Vermont. 
The next year I entered the ministry of 
the same Conference, and from that hour 
we have held the most precious intimacies, 
personal when together, through corres- 



150 PECK MEMORIAL. 

pondence when separated. After leaving 
the Troy Conference Academy he went to 
Carlisle, Penn., and assumed the Presidency 
of Dickinson College. From that institu- 
tion he became General Secretary of the 
Tract Society of the M. E. Church. Upon 
retiring from this position he went back 
into the pastorate, and was appointed to the 
Green Street charge, New York City. 
After the expiration of the constitutional 
term at Green Street, he was transferred to 
the California Conference, and appointed 
pastor of Powell Street church in this 
city. This was in the year 1858. As soon 
as he entered upon his pastorate he became 
most closely identified with the cause of 
Methodistic Christianity on this coast. 
There was no department of the general work 
that did not claim his sympathy and share 
his toil. Specially among these were the 
California Christian Advocate and Univer- 
sity of the Pacific. The columns of the 
former were constantly, during all his so- 
journ on this coast, enriched and embellished 
with stirring articles from his facile pen ; 
while the prosperity of the latter was 
greatly enhanced by his wise counsels in 
the Board of Trustees, and his liberal con- 
tributions to its needy exchequer. He was 



PECK MEMORIAL. 151 

at once regarded by other denominations as 
a prince in our Israel, and as such was 
accorded a prominent place in all non-de- 
nominational Christian enterprises. While 
intensely loyal to his own church, he was 
nevertheless entirely divested from sectarian 
bigotry, and hence was a general favorite 
with all catholic-spirited, Christ-loving men. 
None loved him more, nor regretted his 
departure from the coast to a greater ex- 
tent, than did men outside of Methodism, 
who had learned to esteem his worth by 
association in all causes conducive to human 
weal. These men made him President of 
the California Bible Society, an office which 
he retained while he remained on the coast, 
and which he, at all times, most fully mag- 
nified. At the time of his election that 
Society was in a very straightened condi- 
tion financially, and what little property it 
had was grievously burdened with debt. 
But through his wise counsels, far-reaching 
plans were inaugurated, which matured 
into very great advantage to the Society, 
freeing it entirely from debt, and giving it 
large material interests and great spiritual 
usefulness. And so everything he touched, 
whether Methodistic or non-denominational, 
seemed to feel the life-giving current of his 
magic wand. 



152 PECK MEMORIAL. 

After serving the Church at Powell 
Street, Sacramento, Santa Clara, and in the 
San Francisco District, he came to us and 
assumed the pastorate of this church. 
Such was the condition of the charge at 
that time that no ordinary man could have 
had the least possible chance of success. 
We had just reared and dedicated this 
temple, and were loaded down with a debt 
of $14,000, after every member and friend 
of the society had given his last possible 
dollar to the enterprise and every legit- 
imate available outside means to raise funds 
had been exhausted. One of the most in- 
defatigable and efficient pastors that Meth- 
odism had ever known, the Rev. John D. 
Blain, had just vacated the charge, and 
been appointed to inaugurate a new enter- 
prise but a few blocks to the westward. 
Of course, the whole people loved Bro. 
Blain, and greatly desired to aid him in his 
new field. To give him a start and form 
a nucleus upon which he could lean, a 
colony of some forty of our most earnest 
Christian workers went out from us. Of 
course, in our debt-burdened condition, this 
loss was quite a severe strain on the society. 
And not only so, but many, very many 
non-members who formed a part of this 



PECK MEMORIAL. 153 

congregation were so in love with Bro. 
Blain, and so respected him for his untiring 
and unselfish labors in their behalf, that 
they, too, went out from us to become part 
of the new conoreo-ation. Under these 
circumstances, had not the new pastor been 
a man of extraordinary power, both as pas- 
tor and preacher ; had he not been vested 
with wonderful magnetic force to attract 
the people ; had he not been replete in 
wise and feasible schemes to advance the 
cause committed to his charge, the So- 
ciety would have lanquished under his min- 
istry, and failure would have been written 
over the door of his administration. But 
to the contrary, so great was his pulpit elo- 
quence, so massive and beautiful his 
thoughts, so fervid and burning his zeal, so 
heart-thrilling his exhortations, so soul-in- 
spiring his prayers, so steady and pure his 
piety, so sweet and guileless his spirit, so 
tender and helpful his sympathy, so unceas- 
ing his pastoral labors, so affable and gen- 
tlemanly his deportment, so genial and sun- 
ny his intercourse with all, that but little 
time was required to fill the seats which 
had been vacated, and make his pastorate 
an assured success. Indeed, so great was 
that success and so opulent were his resourc- 



154 PECK MEMORIAL. 

es that he had all times, and on all occa- 
sions, ample means to further assist and 
foster the infant Central. No two men ev- 
er loved each other more or worked in more 
perfect harmony than did Jesse T. Peck 
and J. D. Blain. No jealousy or strife 
ever existed between them, no anxiety as to 
which should be the greatest in the kino-- 
dom of the people's esteem. But with one 
heart and with one mind each endeavored 
to the very utmost of his ability to build 
up the common cause. 

As Dr. Peck had been at the head of 
several of our educational institutions before 
coming to this coast, and had spent many 
years in educating young men for the 
various learned professions, he conceived 
the idea of organizing the young men of 
his church into a literary society, that they, 
by church associations, might improve their 
ntellectual status as well as their spiritual 
condition. Accordingly, an unemployed 
evening was designated for their meeting, 
and a room in the basement of the church 
assigned them. Not many weeks elapsed 
before the society grew to large proportions 
and became quite a feature of our church 
work, and very many young men of a liter- 
ary turn were brought under church influ- 



PECK MEMORIAL. 155 

ences through its instrumentality. There 
is no doubt the society was exceedingly 
useful, in a high sense, to most of its 
members. Xot only did the pastor have 
care over the flock in all their spiritual 
interest, not only did he look sharply after 
the prayer and class meetings, the Sunday 
school and Bible classes, but every depart- 
ment of church work was constantly upon 
his hands and his heart. Busy, oh ! how 
busy was his life in Howard Street ! And 
then that debt, that ponderous debt, was a 
matter of great solicitude to him ; so much 
scuthat he set on foot a plan to reduce it 
during his first year. Ten thousand dollars 
of this debt was funded in a mortgage upon 
the property, and four thousand dollars was 
carried on the trustees* notes as floating. 
The plan was to pay . off and cancel this 
floating portion of the liability, and a sub- 
scription was opened on condition that all 
must be raised or none would be payable. 
That subscription had reached only the sum 
of 83,200, and all the material had been 
fully worked up when the Board met for 
counsel. We canvassed the subscription, 
we canvassed the church record, and not a 
member of the Board could see where 
another dollar could be got. Sad, sullen 



156 PECK MEMORIAL. 

and despairing we sat thinking that the 
$3,200 would be sacrificed for the lack of 
the $800, and were about to adjourn in 
utter despair, when the pastor stealthily 
drew from his pocket a bit of paper, and 
passed it over to me as Treasurer of the 
Board. Judge of the electrical effect upon 
that body of anxious men, when I announced 
to them that the bit of paper was a certi- 
fied check for $800, which the pastor had 
picked up among his Front-street merchant 
friends during the day, just to meet this 
contingency, and round out the full sum of 
the floating debt. No member of the 
church knew what he was doing that day, 
but the sequel showed that he had been 
gleaning well. It also showed how larofe 
and potent was his influence over the men 
of the mart, who only gave from personal 
respect for him, and not from any special 
attachment to the church. 

It must not be inferred, however, that he 
was entirely beyond the shafts of envy. 
No man with positive opinions, with pre- 
eminent success in his life-work, can ever 
reach that goal until he enters the Golden 
City. Such is the extreme selfishness of 
humanity, that many are found who try to 
exalt themselves by hurling venomous shafts 



PECK MEMORIAL. 157 

at those whose lofty positions they fain 
would reach. I have seen such shafts 
enter his extremely sensitive nature, and 
have witnessed how terrible were their 
effects in lacerating his finest and most 
delicate feelings ; but never on this green 
earth of ours have I witnessed so much 
Christlike forbearance, such an indisposition 
on being reviled to revile again, such an 
entire absence of all vindictiveness toward 
those whose calumnies have made the heart 
quiver with intensest anguish. In all my 
closest intercourse with this noble man, I 
cannot recall a single unkind word uttered 
by him in regard to any human being. 

His devotion to his sick wife took him 
from this coast, and kept him a resident of 
the East, as the climate there was better 
adapted to her enfeebled condition. And 
so this family affliction robbed us of his 
valuable services, and lost to us all that he 
might have achieved for the cause, had he 
been permitted to stay and labor. But our 
loss was the gain of others, for surely he 
has not been idle. With hand and heart, 
and brain and tongue, and pen and purse 
all consecrated to the one o^-eat cause that 
charmed his boyhood life; that held spell- 
bound his manhood days ; that lost none of 



158 PECK MEMORIAL. 

its magic sweetness when the infirmity and 
decrepitude of age came on ; that upheld 
and sustained him when death's cold wa- 
ters engulfed him. Idle? No! nor is he 
idle now. Dead though lie is, yet speak- 
ing still ; and will forever speak along the 
ages yet to come. From leaf and page, 
from book and tract, from memory's deep 
recess, speaking firm and strong, speaking 
sweet and silvery, speaking words of cheer 
to weary pilgrims, speaking words of 
warning to wayward ones. Hark ! don't 
you hear the echo of his wondrously sonor- 
ous voice, as it conies along through all the 
corridors of years agone, when from this 
sacred desk it trembled upon the air, and 
filled all this sacred temple with richest 
melody ? Dead ? Yes, but still alive for- 
ever more ! Alive to enjoy the fruitions 
of the heavenly land ! Alive to be free 
from the pains and agonies of earth ! 
Alive to look up, up, up at the wondrous 
olories of that land where no nio-ht is : 

a a ' 

where the sun goes not down, and where 
the springtime of youth and beauty is for- 
ever more ; where flowers do not fade and 
grasses are ever green ; where beauty vies 
with beauty, and where splendor rolls on 
splendor ; where the jasper walls are seen 



PECK MEMORIAL. 159 

and the Eden groves flourish. Yes, alive to 
shine as the brightness of the firmament, 
and as the stars, forever. Alive to behold 
the King in his beauty, and witness his 
wonderful coronation by the armies of 
heaven. Alive to go on from glory to 
glory as eternal ages roll. Alive to take 
in the swelling symphonies of angelic 
choirs, and feel the ravishing joy which 
those symphonies impart. Alive to wit- 
ness the unfolding of what had been mys- 
terious providences in life's history, and to 
see how fully those seemingly hard provi- 
dences had conduced to the highest good. 
So is he alive to-day, and so will he ever 
be alive as eternal cycles move. Forever 
with the Lord, Amen — so let it be. 

ADDRESS BY REV. DR. WYTHE. 

Among the apostolic men connected with 
the early history of the Christian Church, 
we find representatives of every class of 
Christian ministers. Barnabas appears most 
nearly to typify the chief characteristics of 
Bishop Peck. This surname of Barnabas, 
signifying son of exhortation or consolation, 
was given by the apostles to Joseph, a 
Levite of Cyprus. We first read of him 



160 PECK MEMORIAL. 

as being at Jerusalem about the time of the 
Ascension, and selling his land to bring the 
price of it into the common fund of the 
church. After this he was sent to Antioch 
to encourage the disciples, and it is said of 
him that he was a good man and full of the 
Holy Ghost and of faith. His succeeding 
history is connected with the missionary 
labors of St. Paul. His commanding ap- 
pearance led the people at Lystra, who 
supposed that the gods had come down to 
them in the likeness of men, to call him 
Jupiter, while Paul, who was the chief 
speaker, was termed Mercurius. 

His personal appearance, his liberality, 
his comforting exhortations, his personal 
faith, the pureness of his life, and the evi- 
dent unction of the Holy Ghost, suggest to 
us the characteristics of the friend and 
Bishop whose loss we mourn to-day. 

I have been desired to give some personal 
reminiscences of Bishop Peck, with a brief 
analysis of his character ; but I realize that 
whatever I may say will fall far short of 
being a portrait, but will only be an imper- 
fect sketch. The remembrance of goodness 
in our friends should stimulate our efforts 
for personal excellence, and since our de- 
parted friend was a bright example of 



PECK MEMORIAL. 161 

unselfish devotion, even an imperfect review 
of his character will be useful. 

My first acquaintance with Bishop Peck 
was in January, 1863 — a little over twenty 
years ago. I had heard him preach before 
that, and had once casually met him when 
acting as visiting committee at Dickinson 
College, Carlisle. It was about the darkest 
period of the war of the rebellion, and 
accumulated disasters had discouraged 
many. Greenbacks were down to forty 
cents on the dollar. I had been transferred 
from the medical charge at Camp Parole, 
Alexandria, to the Department of the 
Pacific, and had narrowly escaped capture 
by the Alabama. The government owed 
me four months' back salary and transpor- 
tation, and I had to pay my own passage- 
money and that of my family, in addition 
to the sacrifice of my business, library, and 
household goods at a forced sale. I had 
been appointed surgeon at Camp Union, 
Sacramento, and attached to the staff of 
General Wright; but I had become reduced 
to the last twenty dollars when I arrived 
with my family at the hotel. My Presid- 
ing Elder and the Preachers' Meeting at 
Philadelphia had given me letters of recom- 
mendation to the ministers of this coast, and 



162 PECK MEMORIAL. 

with these I started to find Dr. Peck, who 
was the pastor of the Sixth street Church. 
A heartier and more brotherly greeting I 
never received. I told him frankly my 
circumstances, and he gave me judicious 
advice. Not content with this, he aided me 
to find a suitable home for my family, went 
with me and became security for the pay- 
ment of my household goods, and in all 
possible ways showed the kindness of a 
brother in my need. His conduct in this 
instance indicated the real nature of the 
man. 

He was intensely patriotic. His voice 
and influence sustained the government all 
through the war. He was profoundly im- 
pressed with the conviction that the cause 
of the Nation was a righteous one, and that 
God would lead it to a successful issue. 
In my own case he saw the claim, not only 
of friendship, but of patriotism. Had 
opportunity served, he would have sacri- 
ficed position and property, and even life 
if necessary, for the nation. As it was, he 
used position and property for the nation's 
cause. Few men in California did more to 
uphold the government, even when the case 
seemed desperate. 

He was full of brotherly kindness. No 



PECK MEMORIAL. 163 

one made his acquaintance without realiz- 
ing that. His was no narrow, niggardly 
spirit, looking out for opportunities for self- 
aggrandizement. His sympathies went out 
in a full stream, and attracted to him people 
of all classes of society. No man was better 
known nor more esteemed here, during the 
eio-ht years he soent unon this coast, than 
Dr. Peck. 

He was generous even to those who op- 
posed him. No man can escape antagon- 
isms, and the more noble the spirit, or more 
conspicuous the person, the greater will be 
the liability to captious criticism and perse- 
cution from the envious or the malicious. 
Dr. Peck did not escape from such attacks, 
but he never allowed them to disturb his 
equanimity. He made allowance for the 
weaknesss and temptations of human nature, 
and never suffered a spirit of retaliation to 
irritate his breast. Like the man in white, 
described by Bunyan, against whom the 
black man was constantly throwing mud, 
the mud rolled to his feet and the raiment 
remained white as before. 

He was a truly Christian man. He was 
not merely attached to Christ, but he had 
experienced the renewing power of Christ. 
The unction of the Holy One was a reality 



164 PECK MEMORIAL. 

in his soul. His life was one of prayer and 
communion with spiritual things. All he 
had was consecrated to God, and he enjoyed 
a constant assurance that his consecration 
was accepted. During several years of 
close intimacy with him I found his relig- 
ious spirit and experience a personal ben- 
ediction, and I have heard many testify to 
the same thing. 

As a Christian minister he might be sur- 
passed in learning and natural eloquence, 
but few equalled him in that fervid eloquence 
which results from the inspiring presence of 
the Holy Spirit, and none excelled him in 
fidelity. While associated with him as a 
fellow-laborer in San Francisco, I was often 
led to admire his earnest, persistent zeal, and 
indefatigable efforts to promote the work 
of Christ. 

He was naturally a leader among men. 
His executive ability was of a very high 
order. This was recognized at Sacramento, 
when, dnring a dead-lock, as it was called, 
in the legislature, the political leaders were 
willing to compromise by offering him the 
United States Senatorship. He came to 
me that evening for my opinion, and I ad- 
vised him to pray over it, and act as con- 
science dictated. The next morning he 



PECK MEMORIAL. 165 

told me that he had decided to decline the 
flattering offer, as it would divorce him 
from the ministry. I confess that he then 
appeared to me sublime. Such a sacrifice 
of personal ambition could only have pro- 
ceeded from the heroism of faith. 

I remember, also, a time when his capac- 
ity for administration was severely tested. 
It was at the General Conference of 1872. 
shortly after his election as bishop. The 
members of that Conference were very nu- 
merous, as it was the first time that laity 
and ministers had been associated in the 
supreme council of our church. The hall 
was large, and speakers sometimes so irre- 
pressible that it was difficult to preserve 
parliamentary order. Bishop Peck was to 
preside for the first time. and. as he had 
been the unanimous choice of the Pacific 
Coast delegation, it was natural that some 
solicitude should be felt concerning his suc- 
cess. Able men and important questions 
had to be held firmly in the hands of the 
president. But our bishop proved himself 
to be the peer of the rest, and congratula- 
tions were heartily exchanged. After this, 
there was no doubt of his ability to govern. 

He was tender and simple as a child. 
All great minds have child-like simplicity. 



166 PECK MEMORIAL. 

which renders them incapable of guile. 
Dr. Peck rose to high position among his 
brethren by no dubious, crooked or slimy 
ways, but by pursuing the even tenor of his 
life with a frank and hearty sincerity. His 
simplicity of soul could not be comprehended 
by those who cultivate the art of conceal- 
ment and political intrigue. The difference 
between them is as that between the owl 
and the eagle — one delighting in the pure 
sunlight and open sk} r , and the other seek- 
ing the dark recess in the night. 

He had a cosmopolitan and liberal spirit. 
His sympathies were not confined to Meth- 
odism ; and he was loved and honored in 
other denominations for his Christian cour- 
tesies as well as his abilities. Yet he loved 
the Methodist doctrine and polity as the 
best exponent of Christian faith, and the 
best evangelizing system in the world. 

His method of contributing to religious 
education is a model for those who have 
but a moderate income. A few men only 
become rich, and if we depend wholly upon 
these for the endowment of our needy col- 
leges and other necessary evangelizing agen- 
cies, it will be imperfectly done, to say 
nothing of the slavery to rich men which 
necessarily follows such dependence. Dr. 



PECK MEMORIAL. 167 

Peck was not a rich man, but he sagacious- 
ly planned to make the most out of his op- 
portunities. He and his beloved wife 
agreed to carry a joint life insurance policy 
in favor of Syracuse University, which, at 
the Bishop's death, obtains a considerable 
sum. Other benevolences were of frequent 
occurrence during his life. Our own Uni- 
versity of the Pacific was not forgotten, and 
personal acts of generosity can be recalled 
by others besides myself. 

He died May 18th, at his home in Syr- 
acuse, N. Y., of pneumonia. Particulars 
of his last hours have not yet reached us, 
but we are sure that he died as he lived — 
a noble, generous, commanding, patriotic 
man, and an earnest, tender, faithful, child- 
like Christian. 

Beloved friend and Bishop, farewell ! 
Thou hast gone to the land where no mis- 
understanding exists ; where no envious de- 
traction poisons the air with its breath ; 
where all the inhabitants " see as they are 
seen, and know as they are known " ; and 
where the Lamb appears "in the midst of 
the throne." Thou hast joined thy fellow- 
workers who labored to lay true founda- 
tions for religion here. Owen, Bannister, 
Thomas, Blain, Tansy, Maclay, and Guard 



168 PECK MEMORIAL. 

have welcomed thee, with hundreds more 
of thy companions and friends. If it please 
God we shall join thee and them ere long. 
Till then, farewell ! 




JAS. W. WHITING. 

Present Superintendent Sunday School. 



HISTORY OF SUNDAY SCHOOL. 



As we approach the history of the Sunday 
School we are met by a remarkable fact, 
which seems to give a historic unity to the 
school for the thirty-two years of its exist- 
ence. Four only, of the original or organ- 
izing members of the Church, remain — viz : 
Seneca Jones and wife and J. W. Whiting 
and wife. The first named was really the 
first Superintendent, so far as the parentage 
of the movement is concerned ; and the last 
named is the present Superintendent. 
Brother Jones and wife resided near the 
corner of Essex and Folsom streets, where 
the Folsom Street Church was afterwards 
erected. Here at their own home, on or 
about April 14, 1851, they gathered some 
of the children of the neighborhood, and 
regularly met them in Sunday School, 
until the organization of the Society on 
Market street. 

At this time, naturally, the little Home 
Mission was merged into the new movement, 
and on the first Sunday in January, 1852, 



170 HISTORY OF SUNDAY SCHOOL. 

M. C. Briggs, for a brief period in charge 
of the Society, organized the Sunday School 
formally, by appointing M. E. Willing its 
Superintendent. 

At the first quarterly meeting of the 
charge, the pastor, G. S. Phillips, reported 
the average attendance of scholars as about 
fifteen, with one hundred volumes in the 
library. The meetings of the Society 
and Sunday School were held in what was 
known as the Happy Valley School House, 
which was kindly placed at the service of 
the infant church organization, and con- 
tinued to shelter the little fledgeling until 
it found more spacious accomodations in 
the Bush street School-house the following 
year. This last named building stood on 
the site now occupied by H. S. Crocker & 
Co's stationery store. 

The first statistical report furnished, 
bearing date August 1, 1852, is as follows: 
Number of scholars, 25 ; Officers and teach- 
ers, 10 ; Members of Bible class, 5 ; Total, 
40 : Volumes in Library, 100 ; Papers 
taken, 25. General remarks: "Prospects 
seem to be brightening." 

About this time M. E. Willing resigned 
the superintendency of the school, and 
Horace Hoag was chosen to the position. 



HISTORY OF SUNDAY SCHOOL. 171 

In December of this year, Mrs. John 
Burns, now an honored and useful member 
of our church in San Jose, gathered about 
fifteen of the younger members of the 
school into an infant class. She says : 
" Most of the children of San Francisco 
were living just about the school-house, in 
that part of the straggling city known as 
Happy Valley. The first hymn I taught 
them was: 'There is a Happy Land, far, 
far away.' At the close of the school, a 
bright little boy of five years came to me, 
and with an anxious countenance said : 
' Teacher, is it as far to Heaven as it is to 
the States ? ' He had come all the way 
from Boston via Cape Horn, and doubtless 
was feeling unwilling to start on another 
journey involving so many weeks of weary 
travel and sea-sickness. The child's name 
was Hindley. He lived to be a man of 
thirty years, and then passed to the ' Happy 
Land' not so very ' far away ' as childhood 
had inferred from the terms of the death- 
less poem he had sung. I have not regret- 
ted the effort made to meet that little class, 
although it involved the difficult task of 
treading through the sand, which was so 
generously stored in drifts and piles all 
about that part of the young, and yet 



172 HISTOKY OF SUNDAY SCHOOL. 

enterprising city. How often I had to stop 
and hold my position against the contesting 
winds and drifting sand, and wait for a ' lull ' 
to enable me to proceed. ' But God was 
the strength of my heart,' and I was glad 
to labor for Him, and ' sow in the morn' 
the seed, which, I trust, will reveal some 
fruitage in the Heavenly garner." 

The above reminds me of the outflow of 
the heart of a dear personal friend, Rev. 
Dwight Williams, of the Central New 
York Conference, which I will venture to 
insert as a fitting climax to this fragment 
of the early history of our infant class. 

POEM. 

The love of a child, 

The love of a child, 
I know I am oft by the passion beguiled ; 

I know it is bliss 

To feel its soft kiss, 
No balm of affection is sweeter than this ; 
And Jesus to win it spread out his dear hands, 
And children now love him in heavenly lands. 

The child of the poor, 

A smile at thy door 
May fill his sad heart with joy brimming o'er ; 

Oh, do not refrain 

From soothing its pain, 
Nor send it on moaning or pining again ; 
Look down in those eyes, and see if there be 
No image of gladness to shine back on thee. 



HISTORY OF SUNDAY SCHOOL. 173 

Did you know 'twere a bliss, 

Too precious to miss, 
When you pass to the realms of the angels from this, 

From little harjds white, 

And eyes beaming bright, 
To drink the sweet nectar of heaven's delight? 
Forever, forever a joy it will be, 
A fountain from childhood land flowing to thee. 

Away and away, 

No longer delay ; 
Find gems that will glisten in heaven's bright day. 

Oh, yes, they will cling, 

To the crowns which you bring, 
And cast at the feet of Jesus, your King ; 
The heart of a child, oh win it by love, 
To bask in the sunshine forever above. 

The heart of a child, 

Though wanton and wild, 
Oh do not turn from it and leave it defiled, 

But touch if you can, 

By some little plan, 
The heart that will beat with the throb of a man, 
Oh, win it to love thee where golden years roll, 
And love is forever the joy of the soul. 

The first infant baptism enrolled in con- 
nection with the charge was administered 
by Bishop Ames, on the 24th of January of 
this year, while the service was yet held at 
the Happy Valley School-house, where the 
Bishop preached his first sermon on the 
Pacific coast. On this Sabbath the Quar- 
terly Conference was held, and the Sunday 
school report rendered in connection there- 



174 HISTORY OF SUNDAY SCHOOL. 

with by G. S. Phillips, Pastor, indicated the 
following facts : One Sunday school with 
eighty scholars ; fifteen teachers, and one 
hundred and fifty volumes in the library. 
This quarterly meeting organized the first 
Board of Trustees, and the society took or- 
ganic form as the Second Methodist Episco- 
pal Church of San Francisco. 

The growth of the Sunday school is indi- 
cated by the fact that the report rendered, 
bearing date July 30th of the same year, 
gave the number of scholars 200, with 22 
officers and teachers, and 300 volumes in 
the library. This quarterly meeting re- 
corded the reported purchase of a lot on 
Market street for church building purposes. 
The Sunday school had at some time in this 
year accompanied the church services under 
whose fostering care it existed to the Bush 
Street School-house, as before stated. 

The fact that in October of this year 
there is a recorded notice received from the 
authorities to discontinue the services at this 
place doubtless had much to do with the pur- 
chase above mentioned, and hurried the young 
and struggling church on its way into the pos- 
session and occupancy of a house of its own. 
We need not follow the property records, 
which indicate various changes, in tracing 



HISTORY OF SUNDAY SCHOOL. 175 

the history of this child of the church ; suf- 
fice it to say the child lived with its parents 
and was always nestled close to the heart of 
its " Alma Mater." The reported attendance 
was very much less immediately after the 
removal to the new Folsom Street Church, 
which was dedicated in January, 1854. 

William H. Codington here became the 
superintendent of the school, and began the 
valuable services he has continued to give 
Sunday school work in San Francisco 
Methodism, with the exception of brief ab- 
sence from the city, until the present time. 

The whole of the Bush St. School, how- 
ever, did not immediately become absorbed 
into the Folsom street organization, and two 
schools with respectively 78 and 75 scholars 
were reported as existing at the time of the 
first quarterly meeting of the new Folsom 
street family. This, however, did not long 
continue ; and in June of that year the two 
branches came together and commenced a 
more complete and vigorous life in their 
new home. During a period of peculiar 
discouragement, financially, the church in 
debt and paying three per cent, per month 
interest on five thousand dollars, the Sunday 
school was the bond that held the church 
family together, and the inspiration which 



176 HISTORY OF SUNDAY SCHOOL. 

carried it over the severest trials. This is 
not the only family which has been bound by 
the love and obligations which centered in 
the child or children of the home, and thus 
kept from disintegration and ruin. The 
love of a child has saved many a home on 
earth, and as the poem inserted has it, may 
be " a joy forever." 

The Sunday school prospered and grew 
in numbers, and was a blessing to the com- 
munity. 

In 1857 Superintendent Codington, still 
at the head of the school, reported 18 offic- 
ers and teachers, and one hundred scholars, 
with six hundred volumes in the library, 
which certainly was a generous provision of 
reading for the school. In addition to this, 
however, one hundred and twenty Sunday 
School Advocates were taken. In 1858 and 
'59 the school continued to prosper and do 
its work efficiently, and reported an average 
attendance of two hundred scholars, and 
twenty - three officers and teachers ; the 
library still advancing and now having 
reached seven hundred volumes. Conver- 
sions were also reported in gratifying num- 
bers, and the labors of the faithful officers 
and teachers were thus owned of Heaven, 
and the real end of Sunday school labor 
reached. 



HISTORY OF SUNDAY SCHOOL. 177 

In 1860, the record introduces S. S. 
Sprague as Superintendent, with a Sunday 
school constitution, and several additional 
marks of advancement. June 24th of this 
year the minutes of the teachers' meeting 
furnish a copy of resolutions duly passed 
to ascertain the wishes of the children rel- 
ative to holding a picnic. It is not difficult 
to predict the result of such a canvass at 
any time, and the usual result was here 
reached : and the first picnic, so far as is 
known, ever enjoyed by the children of our 
school was held July 4th, 1860, at the Wil- 
lows, a place of resort located almost ex- 
actly where our Grace M. E. Church now 
stands. 

In 1861 W. H. Codington was again 
chosen Superintendent, and continued to 
fill the place until 1865. The average at- 
tendance for the year of scholars, teachers 
and officers was 301, with 926 books in the 
library, and 200 Sunday School Advocates 
taken. The highest average attendance 
reached by the school while it remained at 
Folsom street was in 18b2, its last year 
there, when the figures reached were officers 
and teachers 32, and scholars 350. In 
November of this year the property on 
Folsom street was sold, and the unhoused 



178 HISTORY OF SUNDAY SCHOOL. 

family found itself, by invitation, under 
the roof-tree of the Howard Presbyterian 
Church, at the corner of Jane and Natoma 
streets. This hospitality was enjoyed until 
the first Sabbath in January, 1863, when 
the new basement rooms of the Howard 
Street Church, where we still abide, opened 
their doors to receive those for whom they 
were prepared, and church and Sunday 
school began to worship and work under 
their " own vine and fig tree." The growth, 
incident upon this change was very appar- 
ent and striking, and the average attend- 
ance reached 480 scholars, with a Bible 
class of 33 members, and 33 officers and 
teachers. The church being unfinished, the 
services were all held in the Sunday school 
rooms of the church. The annual report 
of Wm. H. Codington, Superintendent, 
dated January 4th, 1864, indicates an ex- 
ceedingly prosperous condition. The sec- 
retary reported a roll of 650 officers, teach- 
ers and scholars. The minutes contain this 
allusion to the sad and sudden removal of 
one of the most esteemed and useful mem- 
bers of the church and Sunday school, viz. : 
" During the year one of our number has 
been called to the rest that awaits those who 
love our Lord. D. S. Howard, our excel- 



HISTORY OF SUNDAY SCHOOL 179 

lent secretary, died October 20th, 1863, arid 
has left a name that will long be remem- 
bered among us." We find also this allu- 
sion to the connection of the pastor with the 
work of the school. " The adult Bible class, 
under the care of our pastor Rev. J. D. 
Blain, has been fully attended, and proves 
an excellent source from which to procure 
teachers as they have been needed in the 
growth of the school." The teachers, by 
their punctual attendance and faithful la- 
bors, are showing that they have the spirit- 
ual welfare of the children at heart, and 
are deserving the prayers of the church for 
success in their efforts. 

On the 3rd of January, 1865, Charles 
Goodall was chosen to the position of Super- 
intendent. Dr., afterward Bishop, Jesse T. 
Peck was pastor of the church and school. 
The roll numbered 690 in attendance. This 
was a remarkable showing, when we re- 
member that during the year, viz., in Sep- 
tember, 1864, the popular pastor, Rev. J. 
D. Blain, had been appointed to the new 
church movement, or mission, which is 
now the Central M. E. Church on Mission 
street. The average attendance was dimin- 
ished by this fact, but the efficiency of the 
superintendent and his corps of teachers 



180 HISTORY OF SUNDAY SCHOOL. 

soon carried the school forward again to its 
former strength. The interruption to the 
work of the charge, however, by the re- 
moval of Dr. Peck, the pastor, in the mid- 
dle of the Conference year, to New York, 
worked against the Sunday school as well 
as the other interests of the church, and 
the average attendance went down to less 
than 400 in 1866 ; which, however, in 1867 
went up again to 442 as an average attend- 
ance for the year. The records about this 
time allude to a Mission Sunday school 
somewhere on Montgomery street, which 
it was claimed " seceded " from the con- 
trol of the church, and unfurled the Union 
Sunday school colors. The spirit of Chris- 
tian tolerance which prevailed in the school 
management is indicated by this minute in 
the records of the school. " If under any 
name the Word of God is taught to those 
who in that part of the city so much need 
it, our donations of 200 volumes of our 
library books, and the surplus copies of the 
Sunday School Advocate and Good News^ 
as well as money subscribed, will not have 
been in vain." January 8th, 1868, W. H. 
Codington was again elected superintendent, 
and Dr. H. Cox appears on the records as 
pastor. This year indicated a slight falling 
off in attendance, perhaps due to the pres- 



HISTORY OF SUNDAY SCHOOL. 181 

ence in the church of a Chinese Sunday 
school, with J. J. Applegate superintendent. 
If from this cause, the price paid was very 
insignificant for the privilege of opening 
the way for the benighted heathen to find 
the world's and hence their Redeemer. The 
usual prosperity of the school was fully 
maintained under the faithful and efficient 
management of John F. Byxbee as Superin- 
tendent ; during the years 1869-70, with 
an average attendance of about 130 schol- 
ars, with 60 officers and teachers, with 1270 
books in the library, Rev. L. Walker was 
the pastor. There is upon the records this 
minute. " In memoriam : Bro. E. L. Bar- 
ber died in January, 1870, and in his re- 
moval the Sunday school loses one of its 
most faithful and efficient teachers.'' W. H. 
Codino-ton had charge of the Chinese school, 
and reported satisfactory results from the 
labors bestowed in that department of the 
work. 

Chas. Goodall again came to the head of 
the school in 1871, and continued as super- 
intendent until 1873. The pastor, F. F. 
Jewell, reported Nov. 11th, 1872, an aver- 
age considerably smaller than the last fig- 
ures given in this sketch. The decrease was 
largely owing to the fact that the charge 
was without a regular pastor for a large 



182 HISTORY OF SUNDAY SCHOOL. 

part of the Conference year 1871-2, al- 
though the hour upon which it convened was 
an exceedingly unpopular one at that time. 
An increased attendance followed a change 
of hour almost immediately. A system 
of bi-monthly meetings held in the audience 
room of the church was in operation, which 
worked favorably also in bringing the Sun- 
day school and public congregation together, 
and centering healthy attention upon this 
part of church work. The average attend- 
ance, as given by the pastor's report in Feb., 
1873, was 410. At this time the quarterly 
Conference, impelled by a healthy impulse, 
created a committee to establish a Mission 
Sunday school in Hayes Valley, where a 
school had for a time existed, but had been 
discontinued for lack of support. That 
committee reported May 23, 1873, as fol- 
lows : " Your committee, to whom you en- 
trusted the work of looking out a proper 
location for a Mission School, after having 
determined upon starting a school in Hayes 
Valley, found it impracticable to do so at 
present, because of a feeling which obtained 
with some that it would interfere with 
schools already organized." Thus the work 
which was but just opening in that locality 
was postponed for years, and we have noth- 
ing now where, ere this, we would have had 



HISTORY OF SUNDAY SCHOOL. 183 

a strong church organization by the blessing 
of God. 

This year was started a second session of 
the school, which convened Sabbath A. M. 
at ten o'clock for instruction in the cate- 
chism and song services, and with the ex- 
pectation that many of the children would 
remain at the preaching service and assist 
in the singing. The result was excellent so 
far as the instruction and other advantages 
to the children were sought, but the second 
session was unable to rally teachers for its 
work, and was given up. The clamorings 
of the infant class about this time, which, 
under the care of Mrs. Emily Foster, as- 
sisted by Miss Octavia Jewell, had reached 
a membership of one hundred and fifty, was 
beginning to be heard for increased accom- 
modations. The pastor in his report to the 
fourth quarterly Conference of the first year 
of his pastorate, echoed these cries in these 
words : " I am compelled to say that the 
place where the infant class meets is entirely 
unfit for the purpose, being dark, illy ven- 
tilated, and uncomfortably seated. Nothing 
but the most inexorable necessity should 
content you to allow such a state of things 
to continue. Much more than the present 
capacity is needed for Sunday school, Bible 
classes, and infant class." 



184 HISTORY OF SUNDAY SCHOOL. 

S. Mosgrove, the new Superintendent 
brought into the school his characteristic 
energy and enterprise, and the school con- 
tinued to increase in numbers until the 
remodeling and enlarging of our Sunday 
school rooms was a necessity not to be long- 
er ignored ; and in connection with other 
much needed improvements the work was 
done. The pastor, in the report to the first 
quarterly Conference of the second year, 
1873-74, so changed the tone of his refer- 
ence to the school accommodations as to 
say : " The new rooms, or rather the old 
rooms remodeled, enlarged and refurnished, 
are among the finest I have ever seen. The 
increase of light and of comfort in sitting 
cannot fail of appreciation, and we are ex- 
pecting to hear our presiding elder, J. W. 
Ross, say that as our room was the poorest 
for the purpose of any of our denomina- 
tion in the city, it is now the best." 

The average attendance increased until 
at the second quarterly Conference of this 
year the report indicated fully six hundred 
in steady attendance. This gentle hint to 
the quarterly Conference appears in the re- 
port, which may not be inappropriate at 
some other time in the history of the 
school. " If some of the younger teachers 
were superseded by members of this quar- 



HISTORY OF SUNDAY SCHOOL. 185 

terly Conference and other older members 
of the church, a higher type of piety might 
be reached and fuller gospel results real- 
ized. 

At the end of this Conference year the 
average attendance had reached 630, with 
nearly or quite 800 on the roll. The school 
continued to do its work harmoniously and 
with success during the following years. 
As the pastor's report was not spread upon 
the journal, we have not the figures or facts 
for the years which have elapsed since the 
dates above given. J. M. Buffington sue- 
ceeded Bro. Mosgrove as Superintendent, 
and introduced some new features into the 
management which worked advantageously. 
His blackboard drawings of the lesson 
thoughts were of the best execution, and 
assisted greatly in getting the lessons clear- 
ly before the minds of the scholars. Bro. 
Buffington's spirit and efficiency made him 
appreciated and beloved by the whole 
school ; and the work he did shall furnish 
a fruitage in " harvest home " on high. 
J. J. Applegate was elected as his success- 
or, and served a short time only, resigning 
his place which was filled by the election of 
J. K. Jones. Bro. Jones introduced the Roll 
Catechism, which is a feature of our school, 
and added much of interest to this necessary 



186 HISTORY OF SUNDAY SCHOOL. 

part of our Sunday-school instruction. His 
untiring labors in the school, his forcible 
and emphatic advocacy of Methodist doc- 
trines and usages, were productive of in- 
creased spirituality in the school, and many 
were gathered into the church from the 
Sunday-school ranks, during the remarkable 
revival under the labors of Bro. Harrison 
during Bro. Jones' administration. 

The present Superintendent, Bro. J. W. 
Whiting, one of the organizing members 
of the church, and yet in the vigor and 
efficiency of full-orbed manhood was elected 
to the position last January, and is by his 
efficiency and popularity justifying the call 
which placed him there. The following is 
the order of Superintendents from the origin 
of our work until the present. 

Seneca Jones. 

M. E. Willing. 

Horace Hoag. 

W. H. Codington, 3 terms. 

Sam'l. S. Sprague. 

Charles Goodall, 2 terms. 

John F. Byxbee. 

Sam'l Mosgrove. 

j. m. buffington. 

J. J. Applegate. 

Jos. K. Jones. 

J. W. Whiting. 



HOWARD ST. M. E. 
SCHOOL. 



SUNDAY 



LIST OF OFFICERS AND TEACHERS, NOV., 1883. 



OFFICERS 



Pastor REV. F. F. JEWELL 

Superintendent J. W. WHITING 

Secretary J. KIRK FIRTH 

Assistant Secretary W. F. PERKINS 

Treasurer J. B. FIRTH 

Librarian W. M. INMAN 

Assistant Librarian W. F. JANTZEN 

WILLIAM HARRIS 

NAT. T. COULSEN 

H. F. PERRY 

S.B.MARVIN 

Leader of Singing MISS MAMIE CADY 

Pianist MISS CARRIE KANOUSE 



Class No. 1 . Adult Bible class, J. K. Jones, Teacher 

2 J. B. Firth, " 

3 Mr. Draper, " 

4 . . .Misses Miller and Bowman, " 

5... J. W. Whiting, 

6 Miss Carrie Jantzen, " 

7 Miss A. Wilson, " 



188 LIST OF TEACHERS. 

Class No. 8 D. E. McConaughy, Teacher. 

" 9 Miss Lizzie Curry, 

" 11 Miss Laura Jones, 

" 12 Miss Shearer, 

" 13 Mrs. Perkins, 

" 14 Miss Maggie Curry, 

" 15 Miss S. Jones, 

" 16 Mrs. W. B. Cluff, 

" 19 Miss Dillie Little, 

" 22 Mrs. J. K. Firth, 

" 25 .....Mr. T. B. Smith, 

" 26 Miss Nellie Williams, 

" 29 R Pengelly, 

" 30 Mrs. J. K. Jones, 

" 31 Mr. J. C. Smith, 

" 32 Mrs. Burley, 

" 33 Miss Annie Thompson, 

" 34 Miss Emma Beach, 

'• 37 Mrs. J. B. Firth, 

SUBSTITUTE TEACHERS : 

Mr. Henry Thomas, Mr. W. M. Whittaker, 

Mr. J. H. Stitt (now Teacher Class No. 8). 

INFANT CLASS. 

Miss Birdie Harris Teacher 

ASSISTANT TEACHERS ; 

Miss Katie Howe, Miss Hattie Rowe, 

Miss Alice Reynolds, Miss Alice Stracham. 

Leader of infant class singing, Mr. S. M. Batchelder. 
150 scholars enrolled in the Infant Class. 




REV. F. F. JEWELL, D. D. 
Present Pastor. 



FRIENDLY HINTS. 



My Dear People : — I rejoice to greet 
you in the name of the Lord, and unite 
with you in thanksgiving to our Heavenly 
Father for his many mercies to us as a 
church and people. Grateful for the past, 
let us prayerfully look toward our future. 

Our mission is to save the world, instru- 
mentally, by bringing the unsaved as soon as 
possible to the " only wise God, our Sav- 
ior." No archangel is clothed with a high- 
er or more honorable commission, and we 
are not to suspend our efforts until the 
work is done. 

Our qualifications for this work must ev- 
er consist in personal piety, and that vital 
alliance with Christ which follows an intel- 
ligent, earnest, and entire consecration to 
Him who gave himself for us. 

Let us earnestly seek to understand and 
experimentally to comprehend the Genius of 
Methodism. One has said Methodism was 
born in the heart of John Wesley, when, 
May 24th, 1738, he went to a society meet- 



190 FRIENDLY PUNTS. 

ing in Aldersgate Street, London ; and, as 
he listened earnestly to the reading of Lu- 
ther's preface to the Romans, in which the 
great Reformer simply unfolds the doctrine 
of justification by faith, he suddenly felt 
his heart strangely warmed — felt that his 
burden of sin was gone, and that he was a 
new creature in Christ Jesus — felt " cheer- 
ed, elevated, excited; transported with 
sweet affections toward God." From that 
day the characteristics of Methodism have 
been : 

(1.) Spirituality. — Methodism is emin- 
ently experimental : its kingdom is the 
heart. It is nothing if it is not heartfelt, 
fervent, warm. While it has its distinctive 
theology, whose salient feature is free-will; 
and while it has an ecclesiastical polity of 
its own, whose distinctive feature is the itin- 
erancy ; the essential element yet of Method- 
ism always and everywhere is fervent relig- 
ion. Denominational, without being secta- 
rian or straight-laced, it affiliates cordially 
and promptly with all heart-felt loyalty to 
Christ; while holding; aloft the shining; doc- 
trine of the witness of the Spirit, it encour- 
ages that fond assurance of hope that en- 
ables one to say: " I know whom I have 
believed." 



FRIENDLY HINTS. 191 

I would urge you to a careful, prayerful 
examination of yourselves. Your personal 
relations to Christ are of vital importance. 
•It is your privilege to know beyond a doubt 
that your names are written in the " Book 
of Life." 

To know that your sins are forgiven ; 
that Jesus is your Advocate and Savior ; 
that the Holy Ghost is your Comforter and 
Sanctifier ; that your title to a glorious 
heavenly inheritance is perfect; is an experi- 
ence which, dear friend, we urge you to 
maintain in all its warmth and brightness 
and power. 

If you cannot witness to a present divine 
assurance that you belong by gracious 
adoption to the family of God, immediately 
seek for that witness of the Holy Ghost, 
whose token is the cry in your heart of 
" Abba, Father." 

That ye may never lack this witness of 
the Spirit, in the name of the Lord Jesus 
we exhort you to "go on to perfection." 
It is your glorious privilege to be saved to 
to the uttermost ; to have Christ so dwell 
in your hearts that ye, " being rooted and 
grounded in Him, may be able to com- 
prehend with all saints what is the breadth, 
and length, and depth, and height, and to 



192 FRIENDLY HINTS. 

know the love of Christ which passeth 
knowledge, that ye might be filled with all 
the fullness of God." 

Deep Christian experience has been the 
chief element of power in our church in the 
past, and is the surety of our success to-day. 
That Scripture which all the world reads is 
the epistle which is written on fleshly tables 
of the heart; epistles which walk and breathe 
and shine and blaze to the glory of God. 
Such epistles, known and read of all men, 
do we exhort you, dear brethren, to become. 
When your whole life shall be radiant with 
the Spirit of Christ, then will the darkness 
in the souls of men about you flee before 
the power of the light that is in you. Then 
give most earnest heed to personal spiritual 
life. This is the interest that overtops all 
others in life. 

A constant walk with God, a constant con- 
sciousness of union with Christ, is secured 
only by a constant, faithful attention to pri- 
vate religious devotion. Then give your- 
selves much to secret prayer, and to the 
devout reading of God's word. These are 
the soul's proper food, and unless you gather 
this heavenly manna daily, spiritual decay 
and death will follow your neglect. 



FKIENDLY HINTS. 193 

ENTIEE SANCTiriCATION. 

Methodism differs from other theological 
systems chiefly in teachings concerning en- 
tire sanctification or holiness of heart. This 
doctrine sustains such a relation to its in- 
ception, polity and subsequent history, that 
any view that does not make this primal 
must necessarily be a very imperfect one. 
The calling of Methodism was forecast in 
the training and spiritual struggles and ex- 
perience of its founders. 

In reading God's word, they were 
awakened to see that they could not be 
saved without holiness of heart. Dr. Mc- 
Clintock said in his centenary address: 
''Knowing exactly what I am saying, I re- 
peat we are the only church in history, from 
the apostles' time until now, that has put 
forth as its elemental thought the great 
central-pervading idea of the whole Book of 
God, from beginning to end ; the holiness 
of the human soul, heart, mind and will. 
It may be called fanaticism, but this is our 
mission." 

Methodism began her work declaring her 
mission to be to " spread scriptural holiness 
over these lands," and she has achieved her 
most glorious victories when this doctrine 



194 FRIENDLY HINTS. 

had a place in her pulpit and in the hearts 
of the people. If, of God as we have fondly 
believed, then Wesley must have been right 
about the mission, if there is any relation 
between a mission and the work it accom- 
plishes; for this was the work of Methodism, 
spreading scriptural holiness everywhere it 
went. 

She began her work by seeking " the 
power of godliness." She claimed divine 
son ship through the blood of the cross, and 
the witness of the Holy Spirit, and she has 
had something to say to the world on these 
subjects. This one fact is so blended with 
the entire fabric of Methodism, that it can- 
not be displaced without the subversion of 
the whole. Her testimony to the reality of 
entire sanctification, as an experience re- 
ceived by faith subsequent to conversion, 
is as clear and positive as any testimony 
ever recorded in her annals. The Wesleys, 
Fletchers, Bramwells, Carvossos and Cook- 
mans, together with an innumerable throng 
whose names are as ointment poured forth, 
are among her best witnesses on the sub- 
ject of the "power of godliness" in the 
human soul. " Their feet rested lightly on 
earth, they trampled on its wealth and pride. 
They swept through it like apocalyptic 



FRIENDLY HINTS. 195 

angels. They vanished from it like a trans- 
lation. They have joined the shining ranks 
of the redeemed that walk with the Lamb 
in white, over on the immortal shores. The 
glory of their transfigured lives will shine 
as the stars forever and ever." 

(2.) Sociality.— The social life of the 
church is next to its spiritual life, in its rela- 
tion to its success as a soul-winning agency 
in the world. It may be misplaced, and re- 
lied upon for results without reasonable 
warrant : or it may be separated from its 
true relations, and thus involve danger to 
the church. When you were received into 
the church, you heard the pastor say : " The 
fellowship of the church is the communion 
its members have one with another. Its 
more particular duties are to promote 
peace and unity, to bear one another's bur- 
dens, to prevent each other's stumbling, to 
seek the intimacv of friendlv societv amon£ 
themselves, to continue steadfast in the faith 
and worship of the Gospel, and to pray and 
sympathize with each other." 

It requires no severe analysis to discover 
much more here than a personal attention 
to the ordinances of worship, and a coming 
together in the direct services of religion. 
The " ends " of this fellowship are else- 



196 FRIENDLY HINTS. 

where stated, while here we have what the 
church supposes — and teaches — to be the 
duty devolving upon each of its members. 
The " communion " is its friendly, brother- 
ly intercourse at the table of the Lord, in 
the social relio-ious meeting, in the walks of 
business life, in the social gatherings of the 
brotherhood, and in the closer intimacies of 
the family and more private circles. And 
surely, " to seek the intimacy of friendly so- 
ciety among themselves " is sufficiently spe- 
cific and distinct to require no help for its 
interpretation. It points directly to social 
life. There is no need of any radicalism 
in this matter, or of any exclusion of those 
who are not united with us in the same 
church, but simply to be true to the genius 
and traditions of Methodism. Let an echo 
of the Ecumenical Conference endorse what 
I now say : 

" I believe that one of the greatest ele- 
ments of strength in the early Methodists 
was the fact that wherever you went into 
a Methodist church, you found yourself 
not in a sepulcher but in a home. A great 
deal can be done in the way of heartily wel- 
coming visitors. In the early Methodist 
chapels no young man went and stood for 
several minutes at the door, wondering 



FEIENDLY HINTS. 197 

whether there was any seat which he could 
enter: thsre were scores of hands ready to 
be held out to meet him. And, at the close 
of the service, those to the right and those 
to the left were prepared to stand by his 
side, and help him to live a godly, righteous 
and sober life. This is one way in which 
the laymen can help us. The preacher can- 
not, because he is in the pulpit. We should 
not leave showing strangers into a seat to 
chapel-keepers ; but every layman should 
be a chapel-keeper. Let no one even ap- 
proach the door of a Methodist chapel with- 
out receiving a hearty welcome there." 

" I attend your church now, because 
when I came there first your folks gave 
me a welcome. I concluded that they 
were social people." Such was the reason 
given by a gentleman to a member of one 
of our churches for identifying himself 
with the congregation. He had gone to 
several places of worship in search of a 
Sabbath home, without finding one adapted 
to his wants. He received no recognition 
either before or after the services, and re- 
tired feeling that he was a stranger if not 
an intruder. But the courtesy shown him 
by one of the ushers, and the interest mani- 
fested in his presence by the cordial saluta- 



198 FRIENDLY HINTS. 

tions he received from several who politely 
addressed him as he was leaving the place, 
impressed him with a sense of their kind- 
ness, made him to feel that his presence 
was valued, and gave him assurance that he 
would find such friends as he would feel at 
home with. It is not by simply suspend- 
ing the word " Welcome " in the vestibules 
of our churches that this result is to be ac- 
complished. There should be a polite, per- 
sonal recognition of the stranger, and such 
a greeting as will not fail to convey the im- 
pression that sincere pleasure is felt in the 
presence of the new-comer. By taking- 
pains to make the acquaintance of a stran- 
ger, and by giving him an introduction to 
one or two members of the church, ties 
will quickly be formed that will hold to a 
congregation not a few who are now stroll- 
ing from place to place under a miserable 
feeling of isolation, and which will prove 
to be one of the strongest links in the chain 
of means and influences ordained to draw 
them to God and bind them to his service. 
"When the First Presbyterian Church 
of New York stood in Wall street, Robert 
Lennox, then an eminent merchant, was a 
member. He took a great interest in young 
men, especially those who were strangers. 



FEIENDLY HINTS. 199 

He invariably on Sundays took the position 
of usher, welcomed all new-comers, and es- 
corted them to comfortable seats. Stand- 
ing in the vestibule one day he saw a young 
man coming up the steps, evidently a stran- 
ger, and with the air of one who felt him- 
self an intruder. 

"The frank and hearty merchant met the 
young man on the threshold, gave him his 
hand, and told him he was glad to see him 
that morning in the house of the Lord. 

" ' You are a stranger, I presume,' he 
said. 

" 4 Yes ; this is my first Sabbath in New 
York, and my mother charged me to rever- 
ence the house of the Lord.' 

" Just in from his country home the 
young man was not over-dressed. Mr. 
Lennox escorted him up the centre aisle 
and seated him in his own pew. 

"The next morning the young man went 
to a business house, to see if he could get a 
small bill of goods. He gave his referen- 
ces. 

" Did I not see you in Mr. Lennox's pew 
yesterday?' said the merchant. 

" c I don't know, sir. A gentleman gave 
me a seat in church, and sat down beside 
me.' 



200 FRIENDLY HINTS. 

" ' Well, young man, that gentleman was 
Robert Lennox, and I will trust any young 
man whom Mr. Lennox seats in his pew.' 

"That young man became an eminent 
merchant. To the day of his death he said: 
4 1 owe all I am in this world to that Sun- 
day when Mr. Lennox invited me to sit in 
his pew.' " 

This spirit should more than anywhere 
else characterize the prayer meetings and 
class meetings of the Church. The true 
idea of the Church is that it is a family — 
God's family. Its members are children of 
one Father, and brothers and sisters one of 
another. A prayer-meeting, therefore, is a 
family meeting. It is a reunion of brothers 
and sisters. The service is of the character 
of a feast ; and we all know that after 
feasting comes talking and exhibition of 
good nature. After the formal portion of 
the service is over, brethren, why not stay 
and have an informal service of your own ? 
Talk of whatever the Spirit suggests ; tell 
your joys and your sorrows, your hopes and 
your fears, one to another. " Laugh with 
those who laugh, and weep with those who 
weep." At least stay long enough, after 
the formal service, to shake hands with the 
pastor and with each other, and greet any 



FRIENDLY HINTS. 201 

stranger that may chance to have dropped in 
among you of an evening. Lubricate the 
wheels of your Church machinery with the 
" oil of gladness," and you will be aston- 
ished at the ease with which all its parts 
will soon be working together. " Salute 
every saint in Christ Jesus." 

(3.) Family Religion. — Whilst Ro- 
manism and some forms of Protestantism 
make the church the instructor and guide 
of the child, Methodism has always empha- 
sized the importance of family religion. I 
beseech you, dearly beloved, to make your 
homes the sanctuaries of God. Let noth- 
ing destroy your family altars. Cultivate 
hearthstone religion, that your children 
may grow up taught in the Word, and 
familiar with the voice of prayer and praise. 
Let the aroma of your devotion penetrate 
all your family relations. Let all who 
dwell in your homes behold the great satis- 
faction which you have in the service of 
God. Especially, by the beauty of a holi- 
ness that puts its glory on all your words 
and acts, by the charm of a piety that is 
ever full of hope and of good cheer, by the 
power of a faith at once triumphant and 
joyful, commend the religion of Jesus to all 
your household. If we are to acknowledge 



202 FRIENDLY HINTS. 

God in all our ways, if we are to commit 
our interests to his keeping in the confi- 
dence that He cares for us and will direct 
our steps, certainly this ought to be done 
in the family if anywhere. All the excuses 
that are offered on the part of those who 
have no recognition of God in the house ; 
who sit down to the table morning, noon, 
and night — a table spread with the bounties 
of God's providence, and neither ask God's 
blessing upon the food, nor thank him for 
what He does for them, feeding themselves 
like brute beasts off from the bounties of 
God's providence ; who build no family al- 
tar, who never call their children together 
to join in the reading of God's word, and 
in prayer for Heaven's blessing — what 
wonder if God's face is against them ? Has 
he not threatened to pour out his indignation 
on the heathen, and on the families that call 
not on his name? There can be no Chris- 
tian home without a family altar, from 
which daily rises the incense of prayer and 
praise. Let care be used that the altar- 
fires never go out. Let each member of 
the family, so far as may be, share in the 
exercises of family devotion. Let all the 
members of the household be present. 
Let the children grow up under these influ- 



FRIENDLY HINTS. 203 

ences, and when the heads of the household 
fall by death, the family altar will not fall 
into ruin. 

As an ally in your parental priesthood 
and ministry we urge you to use the pub- 
lic means of grace. We believe in the 
Sunday School, and rejoice in the work it 
is doing. Let it have your confidence — 
your sympathy — your support — your co- 
operation — your prayers — and your pres- 
ence. If there was ever any opposition to 
Sunday Schools it has given way before 
the manifestly good work they have been 
doing in all the years since Wesley said : 
"Who knows but some of these schools 
may become nurseries for Christians?" 

There is, however, an evil which must be 
guarded against. In some places the chil- 
dren generally neglect to attend the preach- 
ing services. The Sunday-school is all in 
all to them, and they seem to consider it as 
"the children's church." They regard the 
preaching service as intended solely for 
grown-up people and not at all for them, 
and they stay away from it. It is not diffi- 
cult to foresee the result of this neglect. 
These children will soon be too old — in 
their own opinions — to attend the school as 
scholars, and unless they have already 



204 FRIENDLY HINTS. 

formed the habit of attending the preaching 
service, they will drift away from all church 
influences. 

As yet the evil is confined to certain lo- 
calities. But it is an evil which is spread- 
ing, and ought to be promptly checked. 
For the Sunday school is certainly not a 
substitute for the public ministrations of 
the Word. Teaching; in the class is a £ood 
thing, but preaching includes teaching and 
something more. The orator is more than 
an instructor. Both parents and teachers 
should use their influence, and even their 
authority, if they have any, to bring the 
children to the public service in the house 
of God. If the child cannot attend both 
the preaching service and the Sunday 
school, then the preference should be given 
to the former. On this point our convic- 
tions are deep and clear. 

Certain it is that the founders and first 
promoters of Sunday schools never dreamed 
of drawing away the children from the 
regular public services of the church. 

And now we say, as Dr. Vincent and oth- 
er eminent and enthusiastic Sunday school 
authorities have said and repeated : " If 
children cannot attend both Sunday school 
and public worship, it is in every way bet- 



FRIENDLY HINTS. 205 

ter for them to attend the latter. It is now 
the hour in their lives when their most pow- 
erful, determining, and persistent impres- 
sions are received. The habit of associating 
the Sabbath with ideas of special sanctity, 
of regular attendance upon the sanctuary, 
of the importance of public worship, is now 
to be formed. 

" If this habit is not formed, we shall see 
what we do now see in the instance of num- 
bers of Christian families — a most extraor- 
dinary looseness of sentiment and habit in 
reference to the Sabbath and the instruction 
of the pulpit." 

As akin to family religion and its main- 
tenance in the home and in the hearts of 
the young, let me call attention to the sub- 
ject of 

POPULAR AMUSEMENTS. 

The secular press is employed in publish- 
ing and puffing them without discrimination 
as to moral character and tendencies. 
Some other churches as well as our own are 
concerned about them, because of their bear- 
ing on the religious life of their younger 
members. The initiatory precept of Chris- 
tianity is self-denial ; and the General Rule 
of our Discipline forbids the " taking of 



206 FRIENDLY HINTS. 

such diversions as cannot be used in the 
name of the Lord Jesus." But the grow- 
ing laxity among Christian professors in re- 
gard to worldly amusements, and the plaus- 
ible but fallacious apologies by which they 
seek to defend them, led our General Con- 
ference to define more specifically what is 
meant by " Sinful Amusements ! " And 
hence, we find in the new Discipline, under 
the head of " Un-Christian and Imprudent 
Conduct," the following specific items, 
viz : Dancing, playing at games of chance, 
attending theaters, horse races, circuses, 
dancing parties, or patronizing dancing 
schools, or taking such other amusements as 
are of questionable moral tendency. It is 
a painful reflection that it should have been 
deemed a necessity to incorporate this de- 
tailed enumeration in our Discipline. 

What renders the subject one of deep 
concern to all true Christians, and to parents 
who value the proper training of their chil- 
dren, is, that these amusements come to us 
in many instances under auspices and with 
such sanctions as to give to them the char- 
acter of respectability, or they come in the 
name of charity, or as appreciative returns 
for public benefits. Billiards, cards, dances, 
charades and tableaux scenes are counted re- 



FRIENDLY HINTS. 207 

spectable, because they are introduced into 
private families which are reckoned as re- 
spectable. Balls are gotten up in the inter- 
est of some asylum, or some charitable in- 
stitution ; some fireman's or military com- 
pany ; and these make their appeals to the 
better fellings of our nature, because of ser- 
vice rendered or to be rendered. Worst of 
all is the fact, that some churches and 
members of Protestant churches take such 
low views of the nature of Christianity as 

to imagine that these things are at all con- 
es © 

sistent with the Christian name. 

With God's word in one hand and the Meth- 
odist Discipline in the other, let us resolve 
that by our example, as well as our teach- 
ing, we will endeavor to develop a correct 
and healthful sentiment among our people 
on this subject, so that in respect to amuse- 
ments, as well as in regard to morals and 
religion, the church may stand forth as the 
light and leader of the world. 

And let none forget their covenant ob- 
ligations taken at baptism, " to renounce the 
devil and all his works ; the vain pomp and 
glory of the world, with all covetous desires 
of the same, and the carnal desires of the 
flesh, so as not to follow or be led by them "; 
and your agreement on becoming a member 



208 FRIENDLY HINTS. 

of the church — to keep all our rules of holy 
living. 

In considering the home life and its in- 
fluence upon the character and destiny of 
its constituency, let us call your attention to 
one of the potential agencies of this age in 
formation of character — the 

LITERATURE OF THE HOME. 

In doing so, we would earnestly urge 
upon your attention the value and claims of 
the religious publications of our church. 
An active, aggressive church must have an 
intelligent membership. We are sure you 
can not fill the measure of your usefulness 
as Christians, unless you read not only the 
publications of the secular press, but the 
periodicals of our church as well. And fur- 
ther, the only safeguard for your household 
from the dissipating, demoralizing influence 
of vicious reading, is in the abundance of 
pleasing, profitable and Christian literature 
which our church so abundantly provides 
for you. 

In your general reading, do not accept 
what first comes to hand, but carefully se- 
lect that which will most tend to your soul's 
health and comfort. See that your Sunday 



FRIENDLY HINTS. 209 

school and families are properly supplied 
with the literature of our own church. 
Other churches furnish much valuable read- 
ing, but our own home-born Methodist 
writers have a peculiar aptness for stat- 
ins: and teach in g the doctrines of free grace. 
Take special pains to induce your children 
to read only good books, and to reject as 
poisonous and destructive the low and cor- 
rupt literature of the day. Purchase and 
read our approved Methodist standard 
works, that thereby you may become rooted 
and grounded in the faith of the Gospel. 

I can find no better presentation of the 
importance of this admonition than is couch- 
ed in the language of the pastoral address 
from the Bishops to our last General Con- 
ference : 

" Parental supervision of the literature of 
childhood and youth is of equal import- 
ance with jealous watchfulness over the 
companions allowed to them. We fear 
that thousands of parents know very little 
of the reading of their children, and they 
allow unchallenged, loose, and even licen- 
tious literature the freedom of their homes, 
which poisons the thoughts, perverts the im- 
agination and depraves the hearts and lives 
of the children of the church. We should 



210 FRIENDLY HINTS. 

know what they read by providing freely 
the choicest publications at our command. 
Money expended thus is money saved, 
with purity retained and integrity added. 
Our own publishing houses will amply sup- 
ply this demand. The duty assigned to 
our pastors, superintendents, and Sabbath 
school committees, to decide what books 
shall be used in our schools, if faithfully 
performed, would protect our libraries ; 
and we fear that a neglect of this supervis- 
ion has admitted improper reading there- 



CONCLUSION. 

And now, let me conclude this already 
too lengthy address as I began it, by assur- 
ing you that to meet your obligations you 
need the joyful and abiding witness of the 
Spirit that you are wholly the Lord's, and 
that your will is in complete harmony with 
the will of God, and that the blood of Jesus 
Christ cleanses you from all unrighteous- 
ness. And we gladly assure you that it is 
the duty and privilege of every child of God 
to lay hold, by faith, of the exceeding great 
and precious promises of God's word, so as 
to become "complete in Christ," and " be 



FRIENDLY HINTS. 211 

filled with all the fullness of God." For 
this is the end of our ministry among you, 
"the perfecting of the saints," "the perfect 
man," " the measure of the stature of the 
fullness of Christ," " whom we preach, 
warning every man and teaching every man 
in all wisdom that we may present every 
man perfect in Christ Jesus." " And this 
Ave pray, that your love may abound more 
and more in knowledge and in all judgment, 
that ye may approve things that are excel- 
ent, that ye may be sincere and without of 
fense till the day of Christ, being filled with 
the fruits of righteousness, which are of 
Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of 
God." "For what is our hope or joy or 
crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in 
the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at 
his coming ? For ye are our glory and joy." 
And now, brethren, we commend you to 
God and the word of his grace which is able 
to build you up, and to give you an inherit- 
ance among all them that are sanctified. 

Affectionately your pastor, 

F. F. Jewell. 



212 ADDITIONAL MEMBERS. 

The following names have been added to 
the record of present members, since the 
form containing the record was printed, 
viz : 

Maggie Nelson. 

W. S. Clark, M. D. 

E. L. Paulding, M. D. 

Emma F. Bugby. 

C. Will Beers. 

Arzelia Beers. 

Mary B. Quigg. 

Henry Stinger. 

TlMENIA CONANT. 

Cornelia Perrt. 



